We all fall down
by rotorhead
Summary: The Twins have always toed the fine line of battle hardened viciousness and the Autobot's ideals. When the line is crossed and the dust settles, the twins find themselves somewhere they never wanted to be.
1. the descent

We all fall down.

Chapter 1

The descent.

Disclaimer. As much as I would like to, I do not own the Transformers, Hasbro and some random other people do.

Warning: I embrace the darkness and it seeps into my stories.

A/N Ok so I was re-reading this and noticed that it read more like one of the incident reports I have to type up for work then a story. You know, just the facts and oh so dry. So I went back through and added feelings, well something like that in Prowls case. Yes I plan on continuing and I could not kill Prowl, I like him to much. Heck I can't even watch the original movie cuz of that. I hate them for killing them off. Oooh, the death of my childhood heroes. /cry

The weather turned nasty almost the moment the convoy had left the safety of the Ark. The pelting rain that had been falling for most of the past week, turned to hailing slush as the temperatures plummeted around nightfall. Now just past midnight, biting snow powered by gusts of wind drove it's self against the 5 Autobots trudging along the steep mountain road.

The polished yellow vehicle, fourth in the line up fishtailed as he passed over a frozen over puddle. Sunstreaker let out an indianite sound as his aft quarter panel brushed against an evergreen tree alongside the road before he could regain control of himself.

"DAMN it Sides, that's sure to of scratched my paint."

"Can't you stop groaning about your paintjob for one slagging astrosecond? No one wants to hear it Sunny."

Sideswipe growled, not to fond of this mission, or weather conditions or the slagging reason they had been pegged to be out here either.

"No. No one wanted to hear Ratchets cursing after YOU rearranged and redecorated the med bay in powder pink, but we all had to deal with that, so Now You Can Deal With ME!"

Sunstreaker revved his engine and spun his tires. Rubber finding purchase under the swiftly freezing slush covered road, sending him rocketing forward to not so gently hit the aft end of the red Lamborghini in front of him.

Sideswipe fishtailed then slammed on the breaks. Making Sunstreaker hit him again.

"IT WAS YOUR IDEA, AFT HEAD!"

"IDEA! AND IT WAS GOING TO STAY THAT WAY !!!"

There was no way he was going to let his aft headed brother get way with this, or worse let him get away with dragging him in to this. No he should be at home, in their room in the ark buffing the new wax he had just gotten in and so badly wanted to try. Not out here, waiting for his lines to freeze solid.

The screech of spinning tires echoed off the mountains side as Sideswipe went full reverse against Sunstreakers full forward. Tendrils of steam rose up from their wheel wells as they drifted across the snow covered road.

"Both of you stop this instant. Or would you two prefer the brig?"

The no nonsense voice cut through their personal comms and both Lamborghini's reluctantly stopped their battle. Shoving each other to confirm that it was only a postponement and this would be settled at a later date.

Prowl turned back to the road and signaled for Hound to start moving again. Slowly their little convoy worked their way along the mountain road. Continuing long after it had turned from a well used human highway to little more then a tail a snowmobile would have difficulty traversing.

"Are we still on track Hound?"

Prowl asked the green Jeep leading the way.

"Yes sir, we have a bit farther to go and off the trail at that."

The twins groaned in unison and Prowl had to fight to prevent his own from sounding in his vocalizer. A gust of wind sent a blast of cold through his circuits all the way down to his spark chamber. The force of the wind made him drift out of the path Hound had cut for them. The tactician corrected his course and watched as a second gust made the sturdy green mech in front waver as he braced against it.

"Do you want Brawn to lead so you can recoup? Surly you've frozen a few of your lines by now."

"No, I can handle it. Just this slagging wind is knocking me around. I can't imagine what those Decepticon punks are doing up here."

"That's what we're here to find out."

Prowl turned off the trail following as Hound rolled through a stand of trees. The weathered trunks providing enough protection from the wind for him to hear the grumbles of the Yellow Lamborghini a few car lengths behind him. Brawn reported in from the tail end of the convoy that all was still disappointingly clear, if not cold and slippery. Prowl smirked to himself, the potential for action was probably the only thing keeping Brawn going.

The black and white carefully picked his way behind the tracker, not wanting to snag his undercarriage on something the Jeep could easily traverse. Tires sliding on rocks and on the foliage the trees had not so long ago shed. A few of the trees still had random clusters of leaves clinging on their branches, but most were barren. Stripped by the wind, leaving only the evergreens to provide cover from being spotted.

Teletran 1 had detected Decepticon activity up here for a few moments then lost the signal. He would have passed it off as nothing if it hadn't been the third time that there was activity in this area within the last week.

Whatever they were up to, if they were up to anything, Prowl wanted to find out and who better to take on a mission that had no guaranties of action but plenty of bad weather then the 2 mechs currently in punishment for a prank. If the Decepticons were planning their next bid for galactic domination up here, then the 2 warriors would be useful to have on hand. Otherwise it would serve well as extra duty for the brothers. Even if he was well aware the Sunstreaker really did have nothing to do with this prank, other than providing the inspiration.

Hound was here because he was the only Autobot that could find his way in this mess of weather and Brawn came along because it was his patrol in the first place. Of course the mere hint of a fight would have had Brawn asking to come.

Following the same red taillights he had for the last 5 hours, Prowl ran over all the possibilities based off the data received from Teletran 1. The soft hum of his battle computer as it processed his request offsetting the howl of the wind in his audios.

Before he had even reached possibility # 23 Hound blinked his break lights in warning and slowly slid to a stop.

Prowl halted his battle computer's processes and passed the signal along to the mechs behind him. He stopped to next to the green Jeep to provide a bit of cover for the wind battered mech. Ice had formed on Hounds front end, coating the green mech with a clear sheen. Icicles hung from his front bumper and grille guard, not to mention the bot's windshield had a thick coating of frozen slush that got thicker from the falling snow as Prowl watched.

"This is the place Prowl. Not much to see."

At fist glance Prowl would have agreed, it was just a clearing, an empty clearing, in the woods on the side of a mountain, but then not everything is always what it seems to be.

"Full scanner sweep just to make sure and everyone spread out to search. Stay in sensor range of me or Hound at all times."

4 sets of affirmation and the convoy drifted apart in the deepening snow. Hound revved his engine in an effort to warm up and Prowl kept a tracing node set to identify his team's locations. The twins he noted transformed and started to walk the clearing's perimeter as Hound fired up his various tracking equipment. Brawn wandered off towards the steep downward slope that made the far side or the clearing and Prowl left Hound to follow the green and yellow mech. It was best to stay in pairs in this weather, especially with trigger happy mini bots.

Brawn's 4x4 alt mode was more made for this sort of thing then his Datsun car mode, but he managed to follow with just a few minor altercations to his undercarriage.

The second in command stopped next to Brawn and transformed. His cold cogs groaning from the sudden activity and an embarrassing amount of slush fell to the ground from his inner workings. Losing his balance momentarily as the wind blasted against his door wings. The black and white shifted to get better footing and sent a shower of small stones and rocks down the side of the mountain.

"Careful there boss, don't think anyone would enjoy a fall down that."

Prowl nodded to the green and yellow mech, the cliff face dropped down for what his sensors told him was 2303.45 feet. Also according to the history of the area stored on his battle computer, this cliff had not been here the last time there had been a patrol.

"There are weapons fire marks all over those exposed rocks and look, the area is not collecting snow."

Prowl nodded, the ground beneath his feet registered a 4 degree temperature difference then the rest of the clearing and the blanket of snow that had started to form over the rest of the mountain had stayed at mere slush.

Before he could raise Hound on the coms for the info he had gathered, Sideswipe sounded through.

"Found something, and we better be quite about this." The red Lamborghini sounded almost giddy.

"What do you see?"

"Your no fun Prowl, try guessing first."

"…just tell me."

"A door in." Sideswipe sing-songed.

"To what?"

"Good question, its painted purple so I'm gona say we're not invited." The red twins grin was almost audible.

Prowl paused, this was possibility number 12, a new Decepticon base. Finding the Lamborghini with his tracer node, the black and white mech led the action eager Brawn to their location.

Sunstreakers bright yellow armor stood out against the blowing white snow as he stood look out on a protruding boulder, somewhat defeating the purpose of concealment but showing Prowl exactly were to go. Sideswipe and Hound had low crawled, from the look of the tail they had cut through the slush and snow covered boulders, to positions closer to the tall purple doors embedded in to the side of the mountain. Sideswipe providing cover as Hound ran his diagnostic equipment.

A lone sentry guarded the said doors, back to the blowing wind and rumbling as he kept his engine turning in an attempt to keep his various liquids from freezing over.

"Hound what are you picking up?" Prowl asked over the team's com channel so the others could hear.

"This cliff is hollow. Probably most of the mountain as well. The crust is thinner here so I can pick up readings."

Prowl nodded, he figured as much. It was possibility #12-G to be exact.

"Any idea on what they're doing?"

"Negative Prowl. Some of my equipment froze and is malfunctioning so I can't tell much more then that."

Prowl paused. He could see Brawn fingering his trigger and Sunny was locked on to the Decepticon standing sentry. It didn't take much to know they wanted to fight, but then that was why he was in charge. Charging in blindly was never a smart move.

"Fall back and await orders."

"What! One shot and he's slagged." Sunstreakers whispered harshly, not even looking up from the crosshairs of his weapon.

"Our mission was to find out if the Decepticons were here, mission complete. Stand down until I can report to Prime."

He had expected this. The yellow mech was violence prone and hated to let a 'con walk away from a fight, or what could be a fight, Brawn wasn't much better. Though the mini bot would at least listen and follow orders without to much of an argument.

The yellow Lamborghini stared at the tactician, a snarl on his face and finger on the trigger. His engine thrummed its whispered purr and Sunny shivered as the cold, wet almost melted sleet dipped along the inside of his chassis. He could hear it sizzle as it hit his heated laser core and turn to steam that condensed and froze on his innermost lines. This was the worst punishment the blasted, aft headed Prowl had come up with yet, and that was saying something.

The black and white stood next to him, watching him, making sure he didn't step over the line and do something that might actually be useful.

Sunstreaker watched as his brother and Hound extracted themselves by low crawling their way back. Hound would die by his hand if he let anything happen to his brother. Not that Sides couldn't handle himself, it was the principle of the matter. Grating his dental plates together Sunny wished it was him out there. Out in the thick of danger with just his gun and his brother, like they had always been. Sure low crawling would defiantly have scratched something, but then he would have earned that scratch. Maybe not in a direct fight, but still it was better then oh say brushing against an evergreen.

Instinctively he tightened his grip on his weapon and Sunny's face twisted in to a sneer as he looked over the lone Decepticon standing watch.

He wanted to take the shot; Primus knew that if the roles were reversed he'd have been reunited with the matrix by now. He hated being on standby with an enemy so close and his brother in danger by it. If Sides hadn't insisted that he play look out, then he would have made that slag loving Hound do it and would have charged in, guns blazing. Primus, he still wanted to charge in, guns blazing.

The wind gusted and sent cold air up his servos, his internal heaters switching to high to keep the cold from infiltrating to far into his core. Sneer still on face the yellow mech turned to his appointed leader as Sides and Hound cleared the last of the boulders and stood up.

Prowl was covered in a sheet of ice that made him glisten in the meager light offered by Hounds fog lights and Sunny looked at his arm to confirm that he was frozen over as well. Icicles had formed on his chassis where his heaters had melted the snow and it dripped down. Knocking the icicles off, he cursed Prowl. This was his entire slagging fault. Sideswipe had told him that he hadn't done anything more than plant the damn seed of inspiration in his brothers mind. But the pit loving Prowl had to drag him on this slagging mission, in this slagging weather.

More cold and wet slush dipped against his internals sending a jolt across his frame as it connected with primary circuit boards.

He wanted a fight; it was all Prowls fault that he was out here. He looked over to the 2nd in command and he could not hide the growl of anger that rose up from his vocalizer. It was all this pit slagging, glitches fault. Prowl did not trust him, not when it came to something as mundane as a stupid prank or when it came down to obeying orders. The yellow warrior clenched his fists around his rifle as his frame trembled from the intense urge to destroy the blasted black and white that still stood with his head half cocked, listening to what were no doubt orders from Optimus Prime.

"We are to return to base; Optimus Prime will have this area monitored for all activity."

Sunnys engine revved in defiance. The urge grew, multiplied and infested his cranial unit.

"That's it, we just leave? We get dragged out here, in this weather, and we can't even warm ourselves up with some plasma fire."

The hostility in his voice made the second in command raise an optic ridge.

"Yes, as of now we do not know what is in there, or how many guard it. It would be illogical to set ourselves up to possibly be slagged by underestimating our opponents forces."

Steam drifted up from the cracks in his yellow armor, a silent testament to his anger. A small cynical smile crossed his face. Better not disappoint the pit spawn that didn't even trust him to follow simple orders.

"So let's not estimate, let's find out for certain."

In one fluid motion Sunstreaker turned and shouldered his rifle, he pulled the trigger and sent a single shot of plasma energy in to the chest of the sentry 'con.

The 'con hit the ground with a snow muffled thump as energon leaked from the hole that now took up most of his chest.

Before the warm wash of the guns recoil could wash over the enraged yellow 'bot, the Datsun wrapped his hand around the steaming barrel of Sunstreakers rifle and provided enough downward pressure to point the weapon into the slush at their feet. The anger and rage wafting off the yellow warrior like the tendrils of steam.

The tacticians' optic's narrowed and the sneer still sat on Sunnys face plates as his engine revved, sounding almost like a feral growl.

"You disobeyed a direct order Sunstreaker. There will be repercussions, get back to base, Now."

There was no variance in the voice, no direct indication that Prowl was angered, or even mildly annoyed. Just the coolly calculating optic's focused entirely on him as the other mech's, including his brother, stood silently behind their leader.

It angered him further. It made the pounding in his servos worsen and the ache that had plagued him for a human week, swell. Sides knew he didn't feel well, not horrible enough to go see Ratchet, but not in optimal fighting condition, that angered him as well. That was why Sides had asked him to play sentry instead of scout, and it galled him, nagged him and he… yes, he hated the red one for it.

His body steamed in the freezing weather and the howl of his intakes trying desperately to force his core temperature down sounded against Prowls glare. He was a warrior, let him fight. He wanted to fight. To hear the snap and tear of another mechs metal skin being broken, to have life fluids dripping down his arms and know it wasn't his. That was perfection.

The wind howled, battering them with snow and it wasn't until the seekers were almost on top of them that he heard the roar of the jet engines and welcomed them with a feral grin. He would get his fight, yes, and the glitch ridden, pit slagging Prowl would not ruin this.

Sunstreaker shoved Prowl roughly in to a snow bank as he rolled away from the plasma fire that ripped in to the ground where they had been having their stand off. The yellow mech heard his brother's rifle sound off repeatedly, providing him cover as he ducked behind a boulder.

Skywarp made another pass and was blown off course by the force of the wind. The seekers wings teetered on the gale force zephyrs and not one to pass up an opportunity, Sunny let off a few rounds. He hit the black seekers vertical stabilizer and sent him skidding down to crash land into the clearing.

Sunstreaker watched as the smoke drifted up from the seekers prone body, his engine revving his disappointment.

How much longer till he got back up? That was certainly not a fatal shot. He wanted a fight, a battle, not a lucky shot.

He looked back at his brother as Sideswipe fired at the blue form of Thundercracker as he dove in for a strafing run. Hound and Brawn tag teamed Ramjet, getting him into a crossfire and managed graze one of the jets wings so he spun off course. Brawn was promising the jet an assortment of painful options to add to the injury over the coms and Sunsteaker smirked at the smaller 'bots tenacity.

He understood that and wanted nothing more then to follow through with some of the mini bots threats. Steam continued to rise up from his chassis surrounding him in a vaporous cloud as he looked over at the dark form of Skywarp still immobile in the clearing.

Let the mini bot boast, he, Sunstreaker kept his promises.

Standing amidst the blazing weapons exchange that had focused on Thundercracker, Sunstreaker walked to the form of the just starting to raise Seeker and pressed the barrel of his rifle against the Decepticon's cranial plate. The spark may be contained in the chest compartment, but the personality center was in the head and a mech, 'con or 'bot could not survive without it.

Skywarp stilled at the pressure and offered up his hands. Sunny smiled and looked down at his captive. He wanted a fight, but a kill was an acceptable alternative. His chest felt tight and his servos whined. The red haze that clouded his cranial unit would accept nothing less. The sooner this 'con was gone the sooner he could find one that would be a challenge.

Before he could pull the trigger, the butt of an acid pellet gun slammed in to the back of his head. The rage and hate surged, consuming him. The red haze of anger the only thing left inside him as he staggered from the blow. It engulfed his very being and he roared as he swung at his attacker. Slamming Prowl square in the jaw plate and following through with a left hook that crushed the black and whites chest panel, shattering one headlight. Prowl staggered back, out of Sunny's immediate reach and glared at the furious yellow mech.

"That is not what an Autobot would do, Sunstreaker. In fact it's just plain wrong."

The words didn't register. All that did was that maybe this pathetic black and white could put up a fight. Maybe, but probably not.

Prowl stood between him and Skywarp, the downed 'con tilting his head at the odd scene playing out in front of him.

Water dripped off his frame, the wind making it fall at impossible angles and Sunstreaker narrowed his optics. He may not be known for his thinking ability but even he knew to never turn your back to a Decepticon.

An astrosecond later Prowl gasped in pain as a set of plasma rounds collided with his back. The black and white fell to one knee as vivid blue energon poured from the wounds. The heated liquid melted the slush at his feet, surrounding Prowl with wisps of steam.

Sunstreaker charged forward, a battle cry sounding out of his vocalizer as he leapt over the hunched form of his leader and fired his plasma gun at the transformed form of Skywarp. The Decepticon shimmered for a moment then disappeared.

Used to this tactic, the yellow mech spun around and fired at the shimmering form that was now behind him. Hitting Skywarp in the chest twice, he charged the stunned 'con again. He slammed the butt of his rifle in to the 'cons face plates and knocked the larger mech back a few paces.

The Autobot smiled. This was what he wanted, what the red fog ordered of him and he more then willing to comply.

Sunstreaker dropped his rifle and used his hands to rip the arm mounted cannon off his opponent and tossing the weapon into the gaggle of barren trees.

The pain snapped Skywarp out of his flunk and the seeker slammed Sunny back with his fist. Who responded with a returning blow. The pair ripping in to each other like nothing Prowl had ever seen before.

It was like they had forgotten about the weapons at their feet and just traded blows and kicks. Locked to each other and viciously trying to gut their opponent with what they had been sparked with.

Skywarp snapped an entire circuit relay off Sunstreaker who gave a savage howl and used his fist to remove the left intake that sat on the seekers shoulder. The sound of metal clashing violently with metal filled the clearing punctuated with the growls and howls of the combatants in the center.

Prowl winced against the pain and struggled to his feet, his fuel systems hissing as energon leaked out of his main tank and into his motor compartment. One door wing sat askew on its hinge and a burst of wind almost made him yell out in agony as it slapped the damaged appendage around.

Hound appeared at his side and cast a worried glance over at the battling mechs as he provided a shoulder for Prowl to balance himself with.

"You don't look so good; we should call in for a med evac."

"Not yet. What happened to Ramjet and Thundercracker?"

The green 'bot smiled.

"Ol' Thunderdunder slammed in to the cliff face and formed his own landslide and Ramjet was last seen on a collision course with the next mountain over. All that leaves is Skywarp."

Prowl stood silently as he watched the battle before him.

Sunstreaker bellowed as he threw his opponent to the ground and slammed his foot in to Skywarp's chest repeatedly. The heavy plating dented, then buckled under the barrage, still Sunstreaker kept slamming his foot down.

Prowl frowned. There was no remorse, or restraint. Sunstreaker looked to be…enjoying himself.

The wind whipped around him, forcing cold air in to all his wounds and the snow reducing his optic visibility to a few feet. Still over the thrum of his pain and the howl of wind, the sound of the battle raged. Prowl wobbled as his hand left the supporting shoulder, starting for the combatants.

"Get Sideswipe."

"I'm right here Prowl."

A blip of red flashed in the corner of his optics as the other twin stepped alongside him.

Prowl didn't miss the strained look on his face plates or the worried glace to where the sounds of battle continued on.

A strangled roar reached their audios as the wind died down enough for them to regain visibility.

Sunstreaker stood with one fist around Skywarps throat the other buried in the 'cons chest. A look of almost glee shown in Sunstreakers optics as he slowly pulled out Skywarps spark chamber. The wires sparking and the pink-blue of processed energon bubbled out over the yellow mechs hands.

Prowl froze, in all his millions of years, he had never seen someone so cruelly try to destroy another. It was obscene, vulgar and the worst way imaginable to die.

Hound sputtered something over the com and Sideswipe rushed over to his deranged brother.

"Stop HIM!" He managed to get his vocalizer to sputter out. Even a Decepticon had the right to die in a manor less…horrendous.

The two 4x4's rushed forward to assist Sideswipe in stopping Sunny from committing the heinous act.

Prowl made it a few more steps before a warning flashed in the corner of his optics.

His energon was at 45 percent and falling. The blast to his main tank must have been on the lower quadrant. Looking up at the screech of metal colliding with metal he saw Sunstreaker throw Brawn in to a rock formation dangerously close to the cliff. Skywarp lay on the ground, the pinkish blue of processed energon pooled under him and one of his damaged arms sat on his chest, protecting his damaged spark chamber.

The Decepticon was a wreck, thoroughly slagged with panels and relays littered about the clearing. Not all were from the 'con, Prowl surmised, quite a few glimmered yellow in the trampled snow.

Hound cried out as he was punched away by the ragging yellow mech, forcing Prowl to focus again on the battle. A swift blow to a heavily blast scorched panel on the red mech had Sideswipe loosening his grip on his brother. Prowl watched from his pool of unprocessed energon as Sunstreaker dipped low and scooped up his weapon from the ground.

The black and white doing the logical thing as the weapon was leveled with not the 'cons head, but Hounds.

He fired his gun, the recoil jarring the wounds on his back so bad his optics blurred. Sunstreaker looked blankly at him for a second then crumpled in the trampled slush.

A second warning flashed and the second in command, fell much like the yellow mech had moments before.

"Get Brawn, and call up that evac."

His voice sounded strained over the com link even to his own audios.

"Got a bigger problem. INCOMING!"

Steam fogged the clearing from the amount of laser weapon fire laid down by Astrotrain and Starscream.

The set of 'cons were soon joined by a damaged Ramjet and Prowl sent out a priority 1 S.O.S.

Hounds took cover among the boulders near the cliff with Brawn and both were returning fire. Ramjet swooped in low. Firing at Sideswipe, who crouched at his brother's side.

The red mech covered his brother's offline body with his own, earning a few minor hits then returning fire. Striking Ramjet in the side and forcing the flier to land.

Prowl raised his weapon to his shoulder again. Wincing as the action pulled on the damaged lines that ran under the armor plates of his back.

Ramjet stood on an outcropping of rocks above Sunny and Sides, weapons blazing at the twins. Sides covered his brother again and took a few substantial rounds from the seeker. Prowl fired, hitting Ramjet and knocking him back.

Giving Sideswipe the opportunity he needed and hoping the red mech would realize it.

The black and white let out a groan as his back throbbed and the idiotic Lamborghini stayed next to his brother. His engine sputtered as energon clogged the intake and Prowl rolled to the side in an effort to redirect the flow that was streaming out of him. He needed to get out of here, they all did.

Possibilities and probabilities jumped to the forefront of his processors. Sideswipe turned to look at him, just as Ramjet stood back up. Prowl pointed and the red mech nodded then stood and fired his shoulder cannon at Ramjet hitting the 'con in the chest before turning to the other seekers.

Sides would have to figure the rest out and he would cover for him. His computer insisted that it was there best hope for making it out of here somewhere near functional.

Starscream and Astrotrain had Hound and Brawn cornered, one fired at the trapped Autobots, the other at the ledge above them. Angling in, Starscream let loose two missiles that slammed in to the ledge, sending it raining down.

As the air commander laughed Sideswipe fired his shoulder cannon again, clipping the Seekers wing just as a gust of wind whipped through the clearing, sending Starscream tumbling. The wind didn't bother the much heavier Astrotrain, but the rapid firing from the red 'bot did.

Prowl was impressed, he knew Sideswipe was one heck of a warrior but to go toe to toe against one of the 'cons notoriously vicious heavy hitters, alone, was remarkable. Not just that, he was giving Hound and Brawn time to get out of the landslide Starscream brought down on them.

Ramjet staggered to his feet, energon leaking from the damage he had already received and pointed his arm cannon at the backside of the still fighting Sideswipe. Prowl, low to the ground and hidden from sight by the strand of trees, fired. Taking out the seekers knee joint and blasting his weapon out off his reach.

"Prowl to Optimus Prime. Requesting immediate backup."

"Autobots are on their way, hold in there."

A metallic screech echoed through what remained of the clearing as Astrotrain slammed his foot in to Sideswipes right leg. Crumpling the metal and following through with repetitive blows to the 'bots head. Sideswipe danced back and out of reach, letting loose a round from his shoulder cannon in what Prowl could see was desperation.

He couldn't hold him off for much longer.

Warnings flashed across Prowls optics as his energon continued to flow out of the wounds at his back. Not letting it distract him despite feeling his frame crack from the strain as he fired his own shoulder cannon at Astrotrain. He had to help Sideswipe.

Agony shot though his sensors as a heavy foot landed on his back. Holding him down as his damaged door wing was cruelly ripped off, unable to stop the wounded cry from escaping his vocalizer.

"You should have let him kill me when he had the chance. Now you'll pay for that mistake."

Skywarp slammed his foot down again and grabbed the remaining door wing. Prowl's senor array in his door wing components cried out from the pressure and he shifted his grip on his acid pellet rifle. Tilting it over his shoulder and firing. Skywarp blocked the shot with Prowls own door and when the second in command reeled from the pain, the 'con snatched the rifle from Prowls hands and opened fire at point blank range.

Hitting the Autobot's shoulder joint repeatedly until Prowl lost all incoming data from the lower portions of his right arm.

Ignoring the massive amounts of pain that danced on his circuit boards Prowl rolled. Throwing the heavily damaged Seeker off balance and kicking an exposed relay that sent Skywarp in to reboot.

Warnings flashed more persistently. He was down to 21 percent energon and falling, right arm offline, doors destroyed. Now leaking from the main fuel tank and the secondary fuel line that ran along his right shoulder. He took in the data and reached out blindly, trying his best not to move and aggravate the screaming wounds he had acquired. Prowl felt the hot barrel of his gun and pulled it up so he could use it.

Resetting his targeting program for left arm firing alignment he rolled over to his stomach and set the crosshairs on Astrotrain. Servos wheezing and engine sputtering from the strain.

The triple changer kicked the off-line Sunstreaker in to a tree and laughed at the red mech struggling to get back on his feet. Prowl braced and fired as Astrotrain charged Sideswipe, the heavy mech crushing Sides in to the side of the mountain before turning his attention to the downed Datsun.

Prowl kept shooting as the 'con approached. The acid pellet rounds hindering the mech and he let off a round from his shoulder cannon to force the 'con to take cover. The force of the cannon blast nearly put him in stasis at it crumpled his compromised frame.

It took a moment to turn off the imminent stasis warnings and check how his team faired.

His sensor nodes that still tracked the member of the mission said that Brawn was under half the mountain, Hound was with him, Sunny was down for the count Sides close to it, and his warnings told him he was down to 12 percent energon.

Hold Astrotrain off till help arrives, was the only answer his battle computer could come up with. A shutter passed over him as his battle computer frizzed. Fear dance on his circuits, he was far to injured to put up much of a fight and he would not let his team go out like this. Trembling, he powered down his main processor. Waiting, he switched his processors back online and let out a groan of relief as his battle computer rebooted. Now was not the time to be overtaken with fear or some other equally crippling emotion. Following the instructions for what would most likely get them out of here alive, Prowl shut down all nonessential systems and functions to conserve power and waited for Astrotrain to poke a part of himself out from his hiding spot.

His self diagnostic warned him that critical systems were failing from damage and energon loss. The long list of his injury's scrolling along the side of his optics display. Sensors crippled from a well place foot and communications dead by acid pellet.

His pool of energon reached the edge of the trees, melting the snow and watering the blue and now pinkish from his shoulder wound, substance down. A blip of red reached his faltering optics and he trained his rifle on to it. Taking his finger off the trigger when he registered Sideswipe running straight for him.

The red mech's shoulder weapon let off a round, sailing well over Prowl and into the sneaking form of Astrotrain.

The Decepticon bellowed his anger and fired two rounds.

Trails of energon ran from the red Lamborghini's crushed leg and Sideswipe could not maneuver fast enough to get out of the way of the missiles. One hit his already damaged leg and the other connected with his chest right over his spark chamber.

Prowl watched in horror as the red warrior fell. Processed energon leaking out of the chest wound in an arc as he fell and the leg sparked violently at the knee joint. The snow muffling the sound of his impact.

"Your turn." Came from behind him.

Prowl tried to roll over to look at his attacker but found he no longer had the energon needed for the task and felt himself go still, to weakened to perform simple motor functions. Heavy footfalls reverberated in the frozen ground as Astrotrain marched up to him.

His processors shutting down from energon depletion. Warnings took up most of his fading optics as the 'cons feet came into his dimmed viewing range.

At the sound of weapons being drawn Prowl shut off his optics, ready to be untied with the matrix. Hoping the others would somehow make it out of here alive.

The ground vibrated as many vehicles rolled up and the warmth from Astrotrains afterburners washed over him.

Familiar hands pressed in to his back and he switched on his optic's just in time to see Optimus Prime firing at the retreating forms of the seekers.

Possibility #132-S: Have it all go to the pit and be rescued in the nick of time.

Prowl's battle computer offered right before he shut down from loss of energon.


	2. hot dang

We all fall down

Chapter 2

Hot dang.

I do not own them, any of them.

Or the Transformers for that matter.

Sunstreaker brought his optics on-line and looked at the ceiling of the med may. The sight oddly comforting with its familiarity. How many times had he activated after a battle to see the orange ceiling? Often enough for him to have taken the abysmal coloring to mean that whatever had happened at least he hadn't died yet. Whether that was a good or bad thing had yet to be seen.

Firing up his self diagnostic, Sunny grunted as he looked over the list of damages. It wasn't too horrible. No major components damaged or destroyed, a whole slew of minor ones completely off-line though.

Turning his head and wincing at the pain in his cables at the base of his throat he saw Ratchet soldering wires back in to place on Prowl, who lay face down on the main repair berth. One door wing gone, ripped completely away from the shoulder housing, the other mangled almost unrecognizably and had the unmistakable mark, not to mention stench of closely fired acid pellet rounds.

The red and white medic moved to grab a different instrument and Sunny saw the arm was attached by only a few wires, with fresh solder at that. Prowls back armor plates were blackened by plasma rounds that had melted through the metal to show the energon stained components underneath.

When did Prowl get mutilated like that? It must have been after he had been knocked off-line.

The yellow mech shifted and winced at the pain in his neck, the image of Prowl standing in the snow with his gun steaming crossed his processors and he froze.

Prowl had shot him.

Not a slagging Decepticon, but that pit slagging black and white trying to be all noble. To stop him from off-lining that 'con for good. Anger surged through him, worming in to his cerebral processors. To the pit with Prowl, he could offline for good for all he cared.

Sunny's vents wheezed and whined as they whorled to life, trying to lower the rising temperature of his core. He reached up and felt the wound Prowl had delivered. Just above his armored chest and below the vital lines of his neck. The acid pellet melting a bit of his armor and a corner of the primary circuit board it protected.

Stupid aft, the acid ruined a fair bit his paint, all he wanted to do was his job. Slagging glitch wouldn't even let him do that now would he.

The yellow mech sat up and groaned, there was a large dent in his side and panels were ripped off randomly along his chassis. He was missing one of the vents on the side of his face and the gray of uncovered circuits and exposed metal splattered erratically across his frame.

The fight with Skywarp, he reminded himself. It had been so… satisfying to go head to head like that. No weapons, just him and his opponent. Live, breathe, dodge, slam, parry, take a hit and repeat. No time for thinking or logic, just action. Just do or die, and he had been victorious, Skywarp should be dead.

Prowl took it from him, for the higher noble Autobot cause. His fists clenched and a sneer worked its way on to his damaged face plates.

A perfect opportunity wasted because of that damned logical glitch. You couldn't win a war if you never killed the enemy. Surly Prowl could see that logic, or not, since he stopped him.

Sunstreaker swung his legs over the edge of the repair birth, pushing the pain echoing out from his damaged mechanisms to the side and stood up. He wanted a fight again. To crush something, to destroy and beat and maim and rip. He remembered the feeling of Skywarps spark chamber in his hands, how it had pulsed and the slick feeling of energon as it dripped from his fingers. Red fog took over his mind again, Primus how he wanted to fight like that again.

Heat shimmers wafted off his mutilated body, once so beautiful now… disgusting and all for nothing.

Sunstreaker stepped away from his repair birth, shoved in the corner of the med bay as it was, toward the mechs tending Prowl.

He wanted to fight, the need to vent his rage overtaking the pain of bent gears grinding in his legs.

Passing the secondary surgical birth he noticed the still form of his brother. A direct energon feed going in to the massively damaged chest and one leg almost disconnected for all the damaged based around the knee joint. The red haze that clouded his processors dissipated as a surge of fear jumped to the forefront. Canceling everything but the jolt of panic that clenched his spark chamber, he hadn't even thought of his brother.

The yellow 'bot checked the reds readings, finding him to be stable. All major leaks and relays repaired, all that was left was the damage to the chest internals that needed to mend on their own and the leg. Of which he knew was going to require a complete overhaul. Primus, they had the relay that controlled the damaged leg, exposed and off-line, making the leg truly non-functioning. Something he knew they only did when an appendage was beyond repair.

Sunstreaker put his hand on his brother's shoulder, reassuring himself. He could feel his brothers spark search for his own and he answered the call. A little code of basic clicks they had invented in their sparklinghood to identify each other. He watched as Sideswipe sighed in stasis, comforted by his presence and he reflected the emotion.

Damn it, what had happened after he had been off lined? Someone will die for this.

The door to the med bay was behind them and the small window was darkened. Sunstreaker checked his internal chrono; 0249. Only 6 human hours had passed since he had fought Skywarp.

Something was wrong here.

Ratchet would have kept him in stasis overnight. He had been injured often enough to know the medics standard operating procedure.

Did Ratchet think he was as pathetic as Prowl did?

Sunny revved his engine and clenched his fist against the flood of rage that train of thought opened up. He respected the medic, Ratchet could fix anything. Dents, dings scratches and collapsed cranial units were nothing to the mech. That Ratchet would do this, think that he was incompetent on the battlefield, this was, was…

AHHHG

Pain shot through his midsection and a solid thrum of agony coursed of his circuits. Instinctively he clenched against the onslaught. Curling over the still form of his brother in a silent scream, the sound of metal crunching as he crushed Sideswipe's shoulder in his agonized grip reached his audios. His servos pounded, transistors frizzed and manifolds throbbed all in chaotic discord not permitting him to remove his hand.

Then it was gone.

Vents wheezed to bring in cooling air as Sunstreaker straightened from his hunched position. He twitched as his main processor switched to secondary power as the reboot completed its function check.

Sunstreaker removed his hand from the fresh dent and revved his engine.

There was nothing but rage, hate, loathing and a thrum of incessant ache pounding at his servos fueling the emotions further.

He wanted, he wanted to kill something.

Sunstreaker stood trembling, fans and vents humming trying to counter his boiling fluids.

He had to fight, to exert himself, to inflict pain on someone, anyone. It clawed at him, gnawing at his core processors like a starving glitch mouse. Infiltrating his cerebral core's emote sensors until rage was the only thing produced.

The Lamborghini turned around, optics a burning deep blue and a determined set to his dental plate as heat shimmers wafted out of his patchwork armor.

First aid held Prowls arm in position and Wheeljack welded as Ratchet worked on the ruptured energon lines on the black and white's back.

Like a large cat, the fuming mech silently stalked over to the engrossed medics, all lost in their work and when they paused for a function check Sunny grabbed Ratchet's shoulder. Turning the startled medic to face him before slamming his fist in to his face plates. Kicking when the medic went down and hearing that o so satisfying crunch of cracking metal when he purposefully stomped on the Chief Medical Officers com link.

Wheeljack rushed over and tried to grab his arms to pull him away, but Sunstreaker pivoted on his heal to face the engineer and hit him hard enough to shatter one of the flashing "ears" and following with a combo the Decepticons would have feared. The 'bot was not ready for the force of the attack Sunstreaker laid down upon him, and was thrown to the far side of the med bay without getting a retuning punch in.

Yes, this was, was wonderful.

They were the pathetic ones. They could not even fight back properly, he could shred them, kill them, mutilate them and they couldn't do anything about it.

Sunstreaker paused, Ratchet was struggling to his feet and First Aid looked straight at him, confusion and fear rippling in the protectorbots optics as he slowly backed away.

Sunstreaker smiled.

Oh this was going to be fun.

He decked the medic who had decided to be a non-combatant in the war. Slamming the peaceful 'bot in to a repair birth and getting one fist on his neck, he lifted him. Sunny clamped down on the lines that delivered energon to Fist Aids cranial unit and used his free hand to rip in to the mechs waist circuitry, grinning madly as he pulled. First Aide kicked and thrashed against the onslaught, screaming as much as his crushed vocalizer would permit. Trying vainly to dislodge the hand that held his throat.

Ignoring the pathetic attempts Sunstreaker reached under the armored chest plate and pulled wires from their ports and relays from circuit boards until he wrapped his hand around the main fuel line. He felt the warm energon wash over his hand as the line gave way, the blue fluid dripping, then, with another pull, flowed down the struggling mechs legs.

The exposed wires and circuits arced, sending sparks down his arm as First Aide stopped thrashing and stilled. Optics going dark as he off-lined in Sunstreaker's iron grasp.

No, he wanted more, this was too easy.

He wanted a fight. A challenge.

A sharp pain lanced through his shoulder accompanied by a laser scalpel and a curse from the CMO. The rage consumed the pain and Sunny turned to face his next victim. Feral grin plastered on his face.

The yellow 'bot dropped First Aid and tackled the mech that had almost made a career of putting him and his brother back together.

He slammed the CMO against the floor stunning the mech and straddled his torso, using his heaver build to pin Ratchet down. With a savage howl of joy he shattered the windshield that made up the medics chest. Punching wildly, buckling lines and crushing vital relays. He blindly grabbed a wire bundle and pulled it free, sending sparks dancing across the medic's insides.

Ratchet struggled and tried to push him off and Sunstreaker grabbed one of the medic's arms, twisting until he heard the yell of pain and the metallic groan of buckling metal.

Letting go of the appendage to have it fall limply to the side, Sunstreaker ripped through the armor chest plates until he saw what he wanted.

The spark chamber held the life force of any Cybertroinan and he wrapped both his energon stained hands around Ratchets. Unfazed by the medic's continued flailing he pulled, growling as it remained in place, he stood. Sunstreaker planted a heavy foot on the CMOs chest, just under the stuck spark chamber and heaved. Not caring about the sizzle of Ratchet energon as it contacted his overheated hands.

The snap and pop off lines being tore off spurred him on and the gagging, pained groan told him it would soon be over.

For one of them at least.

Sunstreaker stopped pulling and squeezed the energon soaked chamber in his hands. Warping it out of shape until cracks appeared on the casing in between his fingers and bright, pulsing white light from the medic's spark seeped through the small fractures.

Ratchet fell still, optics wide and dark, his remaining operational hand falling from the leg that pinned him to hit the deck with a condemning thump.

The scent of ozone and fried circuits wafted up to him and the yellow mech could not stifle the giggle that worked its way out of him as he flexed the spark chamber again.

Primus, this was fun.

The din of laser fire silenced the joy and Sunstreaker let go of Ratchets spark casing as the round hit his shoulder joint, letting out a burst of steam.

Teletran-1 sounded the weapons discharge alarm, the entire ship brought to life by red lights that bloomed in the halls and the bellowing warning alarm that sounded similar to that of a human police vehicle.

Sunstreaker looked at Wheeljack, who lay on his stomach with his small hand laser pistol pointed at him and smiled. He straightened and stepped towards the engineer, not even flinching as another round bit in to his armor. Sending up a cloud of blue vaporized liquid where his energon should have been.

The battered mech on the floor was saying something.

It didn't matter. Nothing did. Just fighting did. Just killing did.

He had broken Wheeljacks leg during their first encounter so his mobility was limited; Sunstreaker just had to reach his opponent.

Then he could have fun.

Taking several more rounds the raging yellow mech advanced on his prey. Not feeling the repetitive rounds that were biting in to him. Advancing with all the feeling of a stone wall, slow, purposeful, methodical and uncaring, the closer he got the wider Wheeljacks eyes got and the faster the meaningless words spilled forth.

The sight made his spark soar. The pathetic inventor was afraid.

Good.

The laser pistol clicked sounding its lack of power and the engineer scurried away from him, hobbled by the bad leg and Sunny lunged. Planting one foot on the engineers arm that still held the laser pistol and kicking the body that owned the arm. Again and again, then stomping until energon pooled around the prone form and hissed as it touched the yellow armor.

The gentle swish of the med bay doors opening was all the warning he had before Jazz body slammed him away from the off-line Wheeljack.

His vents opened to better circulate his air and energon liberally covered him, staining him a vibrant blue and transferring some to Jazz as he rolled and threw the saboteur in to the repair berth that held Prowl.

Steam rolled out of his joints and gaps in his battered armor as Sunstreaker watched the newcomer untangle himself from the various lines that had been connected to the other black and white.

This one was made for fighting, maybe not heavy hitting but in every little move the Porsche made there was the promise of a challenge.

He loved a challenge.

He growled as the sink of over heating metal filled the bay mixing with the pungent aroma of spilt energon of various grades. Slowly Sunstreaker stalked around the set of black and whites. Heat shimmering off the frontline warrior as the yellow mech took a battle stance and revved threateningly.

"Hay, chill. Jazz man is your friend."

The deep blue of Sunstreakers optics narrowed and burned through the saboteur.

"Sunny?"

"Sunstreaker?"

The yellow 'bots face twisted in to a grin as he started walking towards the Porsche.

The on-line black and white untangled himself and rolled away from the damaged mechs that littered the med bay floor. Leading the stalking mech away from his friends for the fight he could see coming.

'Jazz to Prime; Big problem in Med bay. Sunny's lost it.'

Jazz jumped as Sunstreaker lunged, twisting and hitting the yellow mech on one of the exposed relays. Only to get backhanded by a scalding fist and not even faze Sunny.

There was a metallic roar and the black and white sports car dodged as Sunstreaker opened a can of proverbial whoop-ass on him. His speed the only thing that prevented him from becoming another body on the floor as punches that could smash through the ships siding glanced off his swiftly moving frame.

Jumping and rolling, landing on his feet and scooting around a minor injuries berth that Sunny shoved out of the way. Sending it towards the med bay doors that opened with a swoosh.  
Optimus, Mirage, and Ironhide stepped in and the old red mech put up his foot to stop the berths travels.

The Porsche stole a glance at the 3 mechs and Sunstreaker took the opportunity to slam him in to the wall. Pinning him there with his larger bulk and pounding on the struggling saboteur.

Hands grabbed at his shoulders and arms, pulling him off the black and white.

NO!

He wasn't finished yet.

He strained and struggled, throwing his weight and screaming his defiance.

Ironhide slammed Sunstreaker on an exposed relay to send him into reboot, only to get shoved and very nearly lost his grip on the deranged yellow mech.

"That don't work, I've already tried it a few times."

"What in the name of the pit is wrong with 'im?"

Ironhides words were punctuated by grunts as Sunstreaker fought vainly to get him to let go.

Jazz shrugged, he really had no clue.

Pulling himself up from the floor where Sunstreaker had dropped him the saboteur nursed his dented sides as he made his way over to Optimus.

The great leader knelt next to Ratchet and Jazz could see his hands working furiously to stem the flow of energon and reattach the vital lines to the spark chamber. Quickly he checked Prowl, First aide and Wheeljack. Doing what he could to help his fallen comrades despite his lack of medical expertise.

There was a clamor as the doors opened again showing the gathered mechs the carnage and the still struggling Sunstreaker.

Optimus turned to the crowd and with just the look in his optics, silenced them.

"Get Perceptor and any other mech that has medical training here, Now. Two others help restrain Sunstreaker, take him to the brig and for the love of Primus don't let him get loose."

Ironhide pulled on Sunstreakers arm to get him to move just as the Lamborghini lurched away from Mirage. Shouldering the old mech to the floor and punting the red minibot that tried to restrain him into the crowd.

No. He had to fight, he had to.

The big one.

Yes fight the big one, he would be a challenge.

Kicking Ironhide before he could get to his feet and punching Mirage hard enough to send him to the floor, Sunstreaker charged.

Optimus stepped away from his old friend, bracing for the attack when a gurgle and hiss filled the room. Followed by the grinding and whine of hot metal and Sunstreaker fell.

Screaming in agony as his gaskets ruptured from overheating and sending what was left of his liquid energon and hydraulic fluid to his circuit boards.

Steam boiled liberally out of his chest compartment and with a metallic clank reminiscent of a lawn mower consuming a bike chain that echoed in the med bay, Sunstreaker's engine seized. Halting all processes and off-lining the yellow warrior.

A/N

You know what; I think I just injured the majority of all the major characters.

Well yeah. I mean if Sunstreaker if going off the deep end, you know he's going to go blazing and give new meaning to the term going postal.

Thank you to those who reviewed.


	3. always

We all fall down.

Chapter 3

Always.

Sideswipe felt it first, the spark clenching wrongness that polluted his stasis. Drifting up from the depths of his sentience like fog over taking a lake on a chill autumn night. The fog unrelenting as it rolled over everything in its path.

Letting out a groan he clawed at the location the grey funk emanated from. Scratching his paint as his fingers dug in to the tainted area. Ripping, tearing at his chest in his efforts to remove the festering stain on his spark.

The red Lamborghini let out a metallic whine as he encountered resistance, preventing him from reaching the panel above his spark chamber.

He tried again, clawing and groaning when he could not reach where it hurt.

No not hurt. It felt quiet. Horribly, horribly quiet.

Where was Sunny? He was always there. A warm pulse that echoed his own spark bolstering his resolve by providing the simple knowledge that no matter what, he wasn't alone.

Yet now he was.

The gapping maw of silence rushed at him and he screamed again and again from the depths of his existence. To fill the void of emptiness that bloomed inside him. To express the quaking fear and the intense pang of loneliness that stung with unfamiliarity.

He'd never been so alone, or alone at all, there was always Sunstreaker.

Always.

Why not now? Why couldn't he hear him?

"SUNNY!"

He called again and again; he had to find him, to fill this terrible hole, to stop the silence.

Panic gripped him and he curled in on himself in the void, terror seeping in as his calls continued to go unanswered.

Where was Sunstreaker, his brother, his yellow compatriot with a sadistic streak and a love for art?

His optics flicked on-line as he jolted himself out of recharge, frantically looking around for his yellow brother and calling out again for his absent twin.

"Calm down 'Sides, let go of yer chest. You'll pull out da energon feed."

Wide blue optics met the blue visor of the resident saboteur.

"Where's Sunny?"

His hands shivered against his chest panel but his voice held true despite the silent void that still stretched across his very being. Intakes sucking in air at an accelerated rate and his gray face etched with spark shattering fear.

Jazz grabbed Sideswipes hands pulling them away from the line connected to the red mechs main fuel pump.

"He's fine. You gota calm down, you were screamin' in yer recharge."

The Lamborghini jerked away and tried to roll off the berth only to have his shoulders pressed down so his back reconnected with the berth. Never one to be contained he reached out and set a hand on the Porches shoulder, then grabbed the tender lines at a gap in the armor with all the strength he could muster and hauled Jazz in close. Almost optic to visor.

"WHERE'S MY BROTHER?"  
He couldn't feel him. He could always feel him, no mater what. He was always right there behind his conscience thought. Not talking, not intruding, not doing anything but being there, thrumming his counter tune to his sparks chorus.

And now he wasn't.

"WHERE IS HE?"

He shook Jazz until the saboteur skillfully weaseled his way out of his grasp and he fought his friend's hands as the black and white tried to keep him still. He had to find him. The silence was unspeakably haunting.

"Calm down Sideswipe, your brother is in the brig."

Optimus's baritone cut through the fog of panic that had risen and Sideswipe stilled as the commanding officer set his large hand on his shoulder and gently squeezed. The tensed sports car let out the excess air his over reacting intakes had imbued in a great gush. The big guy didn't lie; it went against some sort of core programming of Primehood.

If he said Sunny was in the brig, then he was.

Jazz pushed him back in to a stable position on the berth and kept a comforting hand on 'Sides arm as Optimus stepped away. It wasn't much, but at least the contact proved he wasn't alone.

Confused, but not alone.

The Italian sports car looked up at the black and white that smiled in return. Sunny in the brig wasn't that odd, it was almost normal in fact. His brother's favorite form of stress relief was punting the mini bots after all. But that didn't explain the emptiness. He had always been able to feel Sunstreaker before, regardless of distance or the thickness of the brig walls.

"I can't feel him."

Sideswipe whispered to no one and wrapped his arms around himself as he curled up. This had never happened before. Sunny was always there. And if his yellow twin was alive and kicking and he still couldn't feel him then, then.

"Something is wrong."

Hugely, big time, Primus save me wrong.

For him to feel nothing Sunny must of, well, must be dead or mad out of his mind. But he was in the brig, dead mechs aren't in the brig so why couldn't he feel him? Did he give up on him, not want him for a brother anymore. Sides recalled the look on his yellow reflection's face as he backed up Prowl on that mountain top. Was he so mad that he didn't want to share? That had happened before, Sunny had tried to shut him out and the day of near silence made them both as jumpy as a drop of water in a pan of hot grease.

He could feel Jazz's hands trying to get him to uncurl. The energon line was bent and there was a kink that was pressing rather uncomfortably against his chassis.

"Aw come on man, cut me come slack. 'Sides you have ta uncurl or ol' Percie will have m' manifolds on a platter."

Percie? What happened to Ratchet?

Why wasn't the cranky CMO tending him?

The ol' hatchet should have swooped in armed with profuse curses and an arc welder to tell him to hold still or be welded down, or to the ceiling or someplace equally unpleasant.

For the first time since he woke the red Lamborghini took in his surroundings. The utter chaos of the med bay a drastic difference from the tight fisted norm. Slowly he uncurled so he could look around better. Jazz helped him to sit up with out ripping out the energon feed and then the saboteur plopped down next to him on the berth with a groan of bent gears.

"Dat's more like it man. Gotta keep yer cool in this mess."

Sideswipe nodded, at a loss for words for once as he took in the sight and sounds of the chaotic medical department.

The groans of the injured mechs that leaned or sat against the wall by the entry doors and the screech of metal grating against metal as a crumpled Bluestreak moved from the berth next to his. The stench of vaporized energon, fried gaskets and something that Mixmaster probably brewed up hit him like a ten ton hammer and he wheezed to clear the smell from his processor.

Optimus stood a few gurneys over watching him for a few moments before nodding and turned his attention to Preceptor who had asked for something.

The scientist and Hoist leaned over a prone form with energon splashed liberally on their arms and fronts and weary scowls of concentration on their face plates. Optimus handed the red and black an arc welder then started weaving through the crowd of dented and scorched mechs. Placing his hand on a wounded 'bots shoulder for a moment speaking to them briefly then moving on to the next. The great leader himself sporting burned panels and crushed components that made him wince as he knelt down to speak with Bumblebee who's side had been crushed and sat propped up against the wall with the other lesser injured mechs awaiting treatment.

"What happened? Where are Ratchet and the others medics?"

The Lamborghini turned to the mech beside him noticing the massive dents and the persistent energon leak on his berth companion. Jazz leaned back, slouching against the machine that was currently pumping Sideswipes energon for him.

"Well what happened was da Decepticon's tried to kill everyone in da town closest t' their new mountain base you guys found. We couldn't jus' let that happen so we crashed their party. Not a pretty fight seeing how they had time to set up defenses en all, but da 'cons high tailed it b'fore we did. And we managed to save most o' town people."

Sideswipe looked out at the ranks of the walking wounded, and those whose injuries earned them a berth. Primus it seemed like almost the entire ark was piled in here.

Tracks cried out as his blue armor was pealed away to get to damaged lines underneath and Windcharger hissed painfully as a leak was soldered shut. Bluestreak jabbered to someone Sideswipe couldn't see and Fireflight cursed as one of his brothers pushed on his ruptured line trying to stem the flow of coolant that flowed forth.

The void inside him throbbed as another aerialbot helped Fireflight with his battered wing. He had a brother that would do that for him as well. But he was in the brig.

Sideswipe clenched his fists on the edge of the berth. He remembered the base they had found and the fight that ensued. Was that why Sunny was in the brig? For disobeying Prowl or fighting Skywarp like that, or both.

But what happened to Ratchet and Wheeljack and Firstaid?

He looked at the saboteur and felt another ting of pain the gaping hole that had once held a part of his brother.

"What happened to Ratchet?"

Jazz looked away. That was never a good sign. Neither was the hand Jazz laid on his elbow joint.

"Sunny went nutso the night after we pulled ya'll off da mountain. He attacked the medics as they worked on Prowl. Ratchet is still in stasis, we ahh, we don't know if he'll make it and 'Jack and 'Aid got the walloping of their life. They're in critical condition unable help with this mess."

The black and white gestured out at the med bay and the overflowing battle wounded mechs that filled it.

Sideswipe looked at his feet as his spark clenched.

What? How? Why?

Sunstreaker had been fine, ok maybe a little under the weather as the humans say, but fighting fit.

There was no reason behind it.

"He wouldn't of done that, he respects Ratchet to much, but he'll never admit it."

He wanted to see his brother slag it, to hear it from him before he would believe it.

"Sideswipe I had ta pull im off 'Jack m'self, then he tried to flatten me as well."

He looked at the visor covered optic's and shook his head.

Sunny had done plenty of issues, like his mini bot kicking hobby and his tendency to shoot first and not bother to ask questions. Then that thing with Skywarp on the mountain and the disobeying orders thing.

But to go and hurt the one mech that could repair him to his over zealous perfectionist standards was something Sunstreaker would never do.

But he couldn't feel him, Sunny had pulled so far away from him that he could not feel him.

No, he wouldn't believe a slagging thing until Optimus or Sunstreaker himself told him so.

He sat in silence watching as the medics made their rounds through the badly wounded as the day turned to night and dragged on. Prowl came in, a large temporary cover over most of his back and without either of his door wings in order to provide a barrier to the dust and things that could contaminate his internals. The black and white surveyed the chaos and started doing what he did best, organize. Directing the few uninjured and not on guard or monitor duty mechs around to assist the medics.

Optimus wadded his way over to his 2nd in command and with a nudge of farewell the Porsche next to him got up and limped over to the impromptu meeting. Streaks of energon flowing down Jazz's still un-repaired back.

The pang of loneliness crept up and tackled him. Sideswipe ran his black painted hand over his spark casing, fingers digging in to the red paint.

He needed to get to Sunny. The silence inside him was too much. He needed to know that he was alright, that his brother still wanted him around.

Because that was what it came down to.

If Sunstreaker was not dead, the only other reason for the lack of his presence was rejection. Complete and utter rejection.

And for as much as he played around and seeming toyed with death as Ratchet would say of his 'Jet Judo' maneuver. He could honestly say it terrified him to be so alone.

Sideswipe grabbed the line that connected him to the external energon pump and kinked it, cutting off the flow.

He counted and at the fourteenth 'Prowl is a pain', his own fuel pump kicked in. It growled and vibrated uncomfortably, but it was functional.

Reaching over and finding the off button on the machine, he disconnected himself from the energon pump. A trick he learned from having to get away from his berth to stand next to Sunny's when they had been injured. Although if he had made it to twenty without his own pump kicking in he would have had to drag the awkward as slag external pump along with him.

See 'Ratch, he did learn something from their time together.

Well besides the art of dodging thrown arc welders.

Stowing the line the red Lamborghini closed his chest panels as best as the severely dented metal would allow. Cringing when he realized that he was missing the retaining hard wear for at least two closures and that one entire firewall panel was AWOL.

Well he had been thoroughly slagged to say the least.

Sliding off the berth when he was certain that neither the medics nor the officers were looking in his general direction, he crashed to the deck as his right leg refused to support his weight.

Oh right that was where Astrotrains other missile had hit.

Rolling over so he was on his aft instead of his face he looked down at his off-lined leg.

Why yes, he was very thoroughly slagged. His leg was held together by four bolts and five wires at the obliterated knee joint. Not to mention lots and lots of twisted metal, frayed connections and snapped lines.

At least he didn't hurt.

Sideswipe pulled himself up and leaned on the berth to support his weight since his leg wouldn't. He needed to get out of here and get to the brig.

He suppressed the urge to smile. He was breaking in to the brig instead of trying to find ways to stay out of it. That was new.

The sports car spotted the trio of officer's head for the main door out and he limped his way to Ratchets office. Sideswipe drug his uncooperative leg as he worked his way along the wall to the secondary exit that the CMO kept most of the crew in the dark about.

It was also where the doc kept his stash of medical quality high grade.

Leaving the hectic med bay behind and passing the cubes of various high grades stored on wall shelving units, the red brother opened the door that led to a dimly lit work corridor. Listening as it clicked locked as it closed behind him as he worked his way along the maintenance halls he had memorized in the course of pranks to the entrance of the brig.

The brig doors thick and sinister, if anything orange could look sinister.

He keyed his code and was denied, not surprising, so he tried one of Ironhide's.

The old man really needed to use something other then cannons or grenade for a password.

The double reinforce door swished open admitting him to the dim corridor of cells. Hobbling down the row he heard a roar and repetitive slams against the re-enforced door of the last cell. All the others were comprised of energized bars set in to the stone face of the mountain that had encroached in to the ship. The one the slams emanated from was the infamous 'hole' or solitary.

Set the farthest back in to the volcano and made of solid cybertronium, not even Devastator could bust out of there. And it required Prowl's access code to open it. Something the annoyingly rational mech changed often and always made overly complicated.

Leaning against the solid metal door and hearing the hum of his intakes reverberated back to him. Sideswipe slid opened the little window in the center of the door and watched as Sunstreaker threw the bench across the small bleak room.

The anger of his twin echoing out along with a feral roar as steam wafted off the chipped yellow mech. Twisting around Sunstreaker charged the wall the bench had crashed against and punched the strong metal of his prison until his own energon tinted it blue.

"Sunstreaker! Stop!"

Sideswipe pounded on the metal door, the sharp sound getting the yellow twins attention. As Sunny looked at him the strangely deep blue optics paled to their normal color and the missing piece of Sideswipe's spark rushed back to were it belonged.

No longer alone, the silence thrummed with the life force of his brother. Not intruding, not talking, not doing anything but being there. Where he always was and should always be.

"Sideswipe?"

The red one lifted his helm from the little windows ledge he had set it on.

"Yeah Sunny?"

His brother had stilled and looked at him through the windows opening.

"Why are you here? You should be in the Med bay."

The yellow brothers foot steps echoed in the otherwise silent brig as he walked up to the door, face literally on the other side of the mess screen.

Sunstreaker looked out of his prison to the one mech that he still gave a slag about. Would always give a slag about.

He set his energon stained hands one on each side of the viewing window and set his helm against the mesh.

He had woken up here, after the fight in the med bay. Gaskets aching from the repairs preformed for his overheating. He recalled that fight, the rage that had consumed him and he thought of the mechs that threw him in here.

It had made him angry.

When they had come to talk with him, all he wanted was to rip their heads off.

And the feeling wouldn't go away, he had to fight. He had to like he had to intake air and drink energon.

"Sideswipe you should go, there's something wrong with me."

He could hear his brother shift on the other side of the door and opened his optics for a nano second when he felt his twin press his own helm against the mesh, against what would have been Sunny's forehead if the door wasn't there.

"Did you really fight Ratchet and the other medics?"

"Yes."

For the first time since he had on-lined he felt shamed. Every other time he had thought about what he had done, he had swelled with pride and an urge to fight like that again had taken over.

"I came out of recharge because I couldn't feel your presence anymore Sunny. It… it was the worse feeling I've ever had. They said you were in here and I thought that you rejected me."

The response was instant.

"I'd never do that 'Sides. I will never leave your sorry aft so you had better get used to it."

Despite his vehement words the confined mech placed his hand over his spark chamber. There was a time sometime during the night when all he had wanted was to kill. The urge to shred and rip and maim disconnecting him from even pain and he had beaten his own fists to pulp. Then there had been no thrum of decadence from his spark like there was now. There had been just the want for death filling every aspect of his being.

"That's why I'm here Sunny. I'm always going to be right there with you and don't you fragging forget it."

Sideswipe pulled away and turned his back to the door. Letting gravity work it's magic, he slid down to a sitting position and got comfortable, smiling when he heard Sunstreaker do the same.

A/N Happy whatever holiday you celebrate. I am celebrating The Day My Mother Makes a Ham That is Actually Edible. Or TDM3HTAE, it only happens once a year and is a thing of wonder.

Thank you to all who review, that is my TDM3HTAE present. 


	4. ring around the rosie

We all fall down

Chapter 4

Ring around the rosie.

Sunstreaker leaned on the door of his prison, listening to Sideswipes fuel pump rattle against his chassis as his brother recharged on the other side of the same door. His internal clock insisted it had been four days since the fight with Skywarp. Roughly three days since he had tried to kill the medics and 14 hours since Sideswipe had started his vigil on the other side of the door.

He wasn't to sure what had happened to all the time in-between. Sure, he recalled waking up and the Primus painful joints from overheating, but until 'Sides showed up he thought only a day or so had passed. Not four almost five.

He could recall Optimus stopping by and wanting nothing more to rip Primes head off.

After that… it was all a red haze. In fact he didn't know what day Optimus stopped by. So before that was all a red haze as well.

Sideswipe's fuel pump sputtered harshly and Sunstreaker's hand twitched from its place right above his spark chamber, in time with the coughing pump. His fingers encountered a small bump and idly he scratched the blistered bit of his remaining yellow paint.

Something was wrong with him.

Very wrong.

The confined Lamborghini didn't feel all that good. Like his gyros were .378 off giving him a slight portside list and for some slagging reason he couldn't turn off his internal heater. There were a few other equally small things, like his paint blistering and servos wheezing but that was it.

Ok, so his paint blistering wasn't a small thing. It should be a crime for perfect paint jobs like his to be destroyed.

Tapping his fingers against his chest plate he fired up his diagnostic programs yet again. This was… the 12th no the 13th time he'd run a full systems scan since 'Sides had come to keep him company.

The Lambo grunted as the results displayed at the corner of his optics. His self diagnostic didn't pick up any viruses or harmful programs. Or any newly installed programs for that matter. Other then his fists that he had beaten to scrap on his cell walls and the fact he was still missing exterior armor panels, there was nothing wrong with him according to his programming.

Ugly, with his beautiful paint bubbling and pealing to reveal the horrendous protoform gray color underneath, but physically fine.

Something was still wrong with him, there had to be.

Sure he wasn't the friendliest mech around but he knew what side he was on and who his allies are. But there was no fragging reason for him to hurt Ratchet. Who else could repair him to his glorious yellow self?

His brothers fuel pump sputtered again and Sunstreaker leaned his head against the thick metal. The vibrations reverberating through his cranial unit and he not so gently tapped his head against the door.

He was grateful Sideswipe never asked him why he had attacked Skywarp or the medics.

It would be one thing if he could say that there was a reason behind his actions, even if it was a pathetic reason, but there wasn't one.

Again he rapped his head against the door.

He honestly didn't know why he had done what he did. Only that he did, without any doubt try to kill Ratchet and Wheeljack and Firstaid. Primus, he even tried to kill Jazz and if he hadn't overheated when he did, he would have tried to off Optimus.

Even now as he thought back to the fight, he felt his dermal plates twitch into a smile.

Disgusted, he shook his head and slammed it against the door three times in rapid succession. The thuds echoing in the small cell.

It was just on the outskirts of his processors. That want, no, need to rend lines from components, to feel someone else's energon run down his arms. To let the rage take over and damn the consequences, because to fight was to live and he was going to live to the fullest.

From somewhere deep inside him a metallic growl sounded and images of ripping mech's apart jumped to the forefront of his processors. Of screams of pain, and fear filled optics and, and.

His spark pulsed and the blind rage retreated back to its corner as his hand returned to his chest.

Sideswipe.

His brother was always there, but now that he was so close it was hard to miss the counter beat echoing his own sparks pulse.

Few understood it. How he and 'Sides were so different yet so attuned to each other.

Jazz, for some odd reason understood and had said it was because his spark carried the rhythm and Sideswipe's had the melody. Different instruments, but playing the same song or something like that.

It was the best and the least technical version he had heard so far. He hadn't been able process half of the words Preceptor had used to describe the bond and Ratchet just glowered when the subject was brought up.

He felt another warm pulse and pulsed back. He couldn't send anything but his presence over the bond that lingered between them. A gentle nudge that confirmed he was still here was all, but it mattered. Having his brother close filled the space that the anger and rage took up. The gentle pulsing presence keeping the turbulent haze at bay.

Sunstreaker shifted, half his skid plate had gone numb from a pinched relay and he could hear the rattle of Sideswipes fuel pump through the gap by the door hinges. It wasn't a good sound, in fact it sounded worse then when he had first showed up, but the yellow mech was glad to hear it. Settling back down, he leaned against where the vibrations were the strongest against the door and returned his hand to it's place above his spark.

Sideswipe was with him, that was all that mattered. The only thing that had ever mattered.

It was another few hours of listening to the worsening rattle and having the other side of his skid plate go numb before the outside door opened with a whoosh of fresh air and footsteps walked up to his cell. The yellow one knew this would happen, they would miss his brother and any mech that had ever met either of them would know where to look.

Sunstreaker turned off his optics for a moment and circulated his internal air as Prowl's voice called out to wake his brother up. He could tell the cop car was not at all pleased to find Sides here by the minor nuisances the tactician let in to his otherwise even voice.

"You should still be in the medbay Sideswipe. Until you're cleared by one of the medics, you will remain there at all times."

Sideswipe gave an inarticulate groan of not being on-line enough to handle real words and curled up, refusing to budge.

"Sideswipe. That was an order."

"Shove it up your tailpipe Prowl, I'm not moving."

Sunstreaker wanted to laugh at his brothers audacity in the following shocked silence, really he did, but he growled in rage instead.

Sideswipe was being threatened.

NO!

It was Prowl. Logical, uptight, can't take a joke Prowl.

Still, his fists clenched and images of black and white Prowl parts scattered around him jumped up in his processors as the red fog seeped out of it's hiding place. Clawing at him, demanding him to shred and rip, to fight the damn aft and off-line him for speaking that way to Sideswipe.

Sunny clawed at his chest as the rage bubbled out. He could feel it worming its way in to everything, pulsing in his processors. Churning in to his relays and juntion box's, creeping in to his gyro's, servos and even his struts. Drowning him with the demand for action until it became a need, his only need.

A pulse resounded in his chest from his spark. The fog dissipated just a tad and he returned the gesture immediately. Sideswipe sent another pulse, driving the consuming rage further away and Sunstreaker clung to the meager light his brother provided that cut through the red haze.

"Sideswipe, I require words with your brother and you require medical attention. Ironhide, please escort Sideswipe to the medbay and ensure he doesn't leave it until cleared by the medics."

There were sounds of a scuffle from the other side of the metal slab and Sideswipe yelped. The light faded and the red swarmed him.

The caged Lamborghini jumped to his feet and pounded at the door. Ripping, tearing, kicking, howling in rage. Let him at the fragging glitch, the pathetic black and white wouldn't stand a chance.

No one would.

He'd kill them all.

Sideswipe heard his brother beating the door and saw the dust falling from the hinges with every beat. Sunny wasn't holding back and the door visibly stained to contain him. The injured sports car pulled away from the sturdy red mech that had hauled him to his feet rather abruptly, surprising more then hurting him. A howl of vehement rage echoed out from the cell and he reached out to Sunny through the bond again, only to be shut out. Swiftly and brutally, like running into an annoyingly solid wall.

Again he pulsed and chirped out the identifying code they had for each other.

The door shuttered as Sunstreaker pounded on it unrelenting, not returning his query and slamming him head first into the wall again.

That was wrong, he knew his brother would return the bit code no mater what. It was an automatic response programmed damn near the moment they had come on-line. There had to be a malfunction, maybe Sunny hadn't been able to hear him over the commotion.

But why couldn't he get through to him via their bond?

Shouldering away from Ironhide, he stumbled back towards the cell and the black and white standing impassive in front of it. Not glaring at him, no, Prowl did not glare. Looking sternly at him like he was a wrong number in a game of sudoku.

Waiting patiently for him to leave and for the storm to pass, no doubt. Damn glitch would wait forever if it seamed logical.

Sunny didn't have forever.

He tried to take a step and wobbled horribly from the lack of co-operation from his right leg. The old one caught him before he could fall and Sides groaned as Ironhide secured his infamous titanium grasp on to his upper arm.

"Come on Sideswipe, Prowl isn't in'a forgiv'n mood."

The words were drawled close to his audio's as Ironhide forcibly guided him towards the door out. Unable to stop his escort or his own foot sliding on the metal grates, Sideswipe leaned back and twisted around so he could look back over his shoulder at the door and the brief flashes of yellow in the small window.

"Sunny."

The door quaked and a feral scream of rage echoed out as Ironhide dragged him farther and farther away from his brother. The gapping maw of silence growing with each step until it threatened to eat him alive.

It was slipping away.

The bond was fading.

No counter thrum to keep him company, no gentle push to let him know he wasn't alone. His intakes wheezed and whined as he clawed at his dented chest panels. Like he could catch whatever had snatched the bit of his brothers spark from his own and force it to give it back.

"You a'right?"

No, he was alone, horribly alone. Not just blocked, but abandoned and he didn't know why. Sunny was right there. He could hear his angry roars only three cells away.

"Side's?"

He lurched away, backing up and trying to go back to where his brother was

He wanted his brother to respond to him, to feel him in his spark again. To make the silence go away.

"No Side's. You got to r'port t the med bay."

He felt Ironhide re-secured his hold on his shoulder and forcefully turned him towards the door and started walking faster then before. Ushering him out of the brig and in to the passageway with out slowing.

The sports car could still hear the pounding and the roars of rage from his brother in the halls, but no pulse in his spark.

Yet another howl ushered out of the brig, cutting off abruptly to leave the rest to echo in the hall.

Sideswipe trembled for a moment in the absolute silence. The rattle of his fuel pump doing nothing to counter it.

"SUNNY!!!!"

The red mech punched out blindly with as much force as he could and heard the groan of impact on old gears. Twisting, he tried to get out of the grip that held him and return to his twin. Punching again when the grip only tightened on his arm.

"LET ME GO!!"

The old man wrestled him to the ground and Sides continued to punch wildly, striking Ironhide a few times and kicking as best he could with his undamaged leg. The old red mini-van wasn't Primes bodyguard for nothing and kept his vice like grip on the struggling mech.

"Calm, Omph, down, Sideswipe. He jus' ,ahhh stop that, want's t' talk t' him."

Sideswipe didn't care, really.

"DON'T TAKE ME AWAY FROM HIM!"

He elbowed Ironhide in the face plate then grabbed on to the nearest door jam as he struggled to not be dragged to the med bay.

"Please, don't take me away from him."

His vocalizer frizzed halfway through the sentence, betraying his fears.

The old mech stopped, standing stock still with his hand still clamped on to the younger 'bots arm.

"Sideswipe? What's wrong?"

Before he could say anything, a resounding metal crash sounded from the brig followed by a piercing feral roar. Ironhide was on guard instantly, cannons at the ready, as Sunstreaker charged out the door of the brig and shoulder slammed Prowl into the opposing wall.

Fists pounding into the black and white who dipped low and planted his feet on the raging yellow mechs chest. Using the wall at his back to brace, Prowl kicked the 'bot off him.

Sunstreaker skidded across the hall and jumped up ready to attack with complete disregard for the fresh dents.

Sideswipes sat numbly on the floor, watching as Ironhide intercepted-tackled his brother to keep him from Prowl.

Steam drifted off his brothers yellow armor as he threw the red mini van in to a wall. He was crouching low, engine growling as he watched both the black and white and the old red one with a gleam in his deep blue optics.

His brother was so close, maybe 50 paces, but he still couldn't feel the bond.

Sideswipe sent out a pulse that went nowhere and the bit code query.

Only to be ignored.

His yellow reflection charged the dented Ironhide as the mech rose to his feet and Sides watched as orn's of war had the red combatant's cannons up and cross hairs on his brother before two steps had been taken.

"IRONHIDE, DON'T!!"

The cry escaped the injured Lamborghini and the van paused, startled.

Sunstreaker punched him square in the jaw strut, grabbed on to the lip of his armor at his throat and threw the minivan over his shoulder in a classic human judo move. Kicking Ironhides gun away as soon as he hit the floor with a groan of discombobulated gears. The old 'bot rolled as Sunny stomped, dodging the strike but getting kicked in the chest as a counter move.

Sideswipe watched as Ironhide slid across the floor from the blow and Sunny jumped on him the moment he stopped moving. Fists pounding the old man as Ironhide tried to get out of the corner he had slid in to, trapping him.

A flash of motion caught his attention and the red twin spotted Prowl trying to stand. He was hung up on one of the ships junction box's. The temporary cover over his back had been punctured by some of the lines that had buckled and now were tangled with his internals so he couldn't just pull away.

Ironhide roared as his energon splashed on the walls around him courtesy of Sunstreakers fists.

SECURITY TEAM REPORT TO PASSAGWAY 12-34 B, BRIG QUADRENT. MEDICS ON STANDBY.

Prowls voice faded from the master com channel and the thunder of hurried foot falls started from the deck above him.

They were going to throw Sunny in the brig again, or worse, deactivate him because he couldn't be contained.

NO!

He couldn't live with this silence, not for forever. What kind of life would there be without his brother? As far as he knew, there wasn't one.

The red mech struggled to get to his feet and staggered toward his raging twin.

"Sunstreaker Stop!"

Still the yellow one tore at lines and pealed armor panels off the van under him. He stumbled to Sunny's side and grabbed his brother's heat shimmering shoulder, preventing a punch to Ironhide's face.

The next moment he was across the hall imbedded into the wall.

The yellow Lamborghini revved his engine threateningly and went back to pounding on the struggling Ironhide when the mech managed to get his leg up enough to kick the deranged yellow 'bot.

The footfalls were getting closer and cries of "Where are they?" reached his ringing audio's. Sunny had to stop.

Any other time he would tackle his brother and get in to one of their legendary fights, but he was already sub par what with his bum leg and all.

A line burst on Sunstreaker, sending vaporized energon to coat the walls along with Ironhide's ample donation.

Pulling himself out of his personalized dent, the red twin clamored to his feet and on-lined the relay panel for his bad leg. Hissing in pain as sensation returned to the badly damaged appendage.

Transforming before he could fall over, he transferred his alt modes drive train from rear wheel drive to front wheel and charged his brother.

Ramming in to the yellow version of himself hard enough to knock him off Ironhide and pin him to the wall.

As the mech under his scramed his rage, Sideswipe sent out the strongest, imploring spark pulse he could and shouted.

"SUNSTREAKER, TRANSFORM!!!!"

There was a moment of stunned silence then the distinctive chirr of transformation. The red Lamborghini backed up, off the yellow one.

Steam drifted out of the engine compartment and there was still silence where there should be a spark pulse. Sunstreaker's engine came to life and with a squeal of rubber the yellow twin floored it in reverse, whipping around the tight passageway with a trajectory to the injured black and white who still couldn't move.

"NO, DANM IT."

Sideswipe rumbled to life and shot after his brother, slamming in to his brothers front end and forcing him to hit the wall next to the stuck Datsun.

"Come get me you slagging sunflower."

Sides shifted in to reverse and roared down the hall, whipping around as soon as there was enough space to do so.

Sunstreaker on his tail as he blasted past Optimus and Bumblebee. Turning and drifting, and by Primus did that make his leg hurt, around a tight corner. Knocking over a shocked Hound and Bluestreak, he gunned it as he took the cargo bay ramp up to the main level.

His brother rammed his back tire in the open area and he spun out. His fuel pump cut out from the jostling for a moment then turned back on-line when Sunny rammed him again. Catching himself he straightened out and made a break for the passageway that led out.

Alarms were sounding, flashing, doing what it is they do and three mechs stood in front of the opening that led out and away from the Ark.

A living barricade of Dinobots, and he sped up.

He couldn't live without Sunstreaker and Sunstreaker couldn't live here.

He wove around Sludge's tail, dodged Grimlock's foot the T-rex tried to plant on his hood and a well timed push from his brother's front bumper pushed him out of the path of Snarls fire breath.

Out of the Ark with the fading sun lighting the sky and the dirt road sprawling out in front of him, he gunned his engine.

His fuel pump sputtered but continued to function and a yellow Lamborghini shown in his rear view as he sped off in to the desert.

A/N Sorry for the wait, I had to do the whole find a house and get it set up thing.

Thank you to those who review.


	5. ashes

We all fall down,

Chapter 5

Ashes

* * *

The Mojave Desert sprawled out in all directions around the set of Lamborghinis speeding over the rocky terrain. Sand and dust kicked up in their passing formed a cloud behind them and Sideswipe picked up a towns energy signature on his long range scanners.

Not a very big town, hardly more then a few buildings and a single blinking yellow light, but he didn't want to take any chances. Not with Sunny being as volatile as he was. Groaning as it strained his injured leg, he turned to the south at a trajectory that would take them further away from anything inhabited.

Forgoing the roads for the same reason, the sage grass and Joshua trees rose up to conceal the ditches and loose stones of the wilds as he sped along as fast as he could. Putting on a bit of speed and bracing as a gully materialized in front of him. The injured red sports car sailed over the small, dry stream bed and he didn't try to hide the pained sound he made when he hit the opposing bank, sending sun baked shale skittering down the slop.

His leg hurt beyond anything he had ever had imagined pain was possible of producing. And considering how many times he had been slagged on a battlefield that was saying something. Even though most of the appendages inner workings had been removed and all that remained were the twisted structural components. His relays and sensor nodes _insisted_ he felt every bump and dip in servos and struts no longer installed. Every jostling from ran over vegetation sending him further over his pain threshold and making him put up yet another firewall to prevent stasis.

A coyote howled off in the distance as he brushed passed an Oleander in full bloom.

Desolation echoed off the rock formations that reached up to give the area a unique skyline. The remains of a cactus stubbornly clung to his undercarriage from a mishap several hours ago and the hot wind did little to cool his struggling fuel pump.

Of which chugged alarmingly, reminding him of its malcontent as Sideswipe started up a small rise. It had been growing steadily worse with each passing mile; he could feel the vibrations all the way into his manifolds now and the components around the pump were starting to shake loose.

But he couldn't stop. Sunny needed him to keep going.

His brother still shown in his rear view mirror, covered in road grime and a thick coat of dust over the un-natural dents, dings and scratches on the yellow Lamborghini. Hours had passed since their departure from the Ark and Sunny showed no inclination to stop anytime soon.

So he kept going.

The sparse plants retreated revealing red tinged, wind scored rocks and he tried to gun it. His brother always tried something during the brief open areas. Something that always made his leg hurt and his fuel pump threaten to quit.

The red sports car felt the wheeze and the chug of his struggling pump as his wheels spun in his attempt to gain speed. Dust and dirt sprayed out behind him as he gained a few precious inches of distance from the roaring engine of his brother behind him.

He still couldn't feel him.

The void in his spark still made him want to scream out in desperation.

But he couldn't.

No.

He had to drive, to keep moving, to keep Sunny from doing something even move unforgivable then he already had.

No mater how tired he was or how much it hurt.

The struggling Lamborghinis HUD flashed, he was low on energon. Not to surprising, he had been going top speed for hours now. But stopping was not an option.

His sensors picked up his brothers movement as the yellow one moved out from behind him and pulled up even with Sideswipes rear tire.

He swerved.

Breaks squealing and pump just about convulsing as something between a curse and a scream screeched out of his vocalizer as he whipped around to keep Sunstreaker from performing the pit maneuver. His red aft fishtailed on the loose grit as he tried to pull straight and he slammed against a shrub adorned boulder with a loud crack of buckling metal before he managed to regain control.

Sideswipe clenched, putting up as many firewalls as he could to block the pain in order to keep driving. Moments passed and slowly he started to let the firewalls down, letting inputs from his side reach his processor. Wincing and not bothering to muffle his yelps of pain as the sensations rushed up to swarm his aching spark and frazzled CPU.

He was so tired.

And it hurt.

He wanted his brother to act like his brother again.

He wanted to stop.

He wanted to recharge.

He wanted Ratchet to make all the pain go away.

He wanted his room in the Ark with his comfy recharge berth and the rec. room fully stocked with energon just down the hall.

He could just see it, the obnoxious orange door and Bluestreak chattering next to them as they walked towards it. Sunny glowered as a playful slap on his shoulder scratched his fresh paint and shoved him in return.

Sideswipe hit a Joshua tree, taking out a headlight and swerving violently to keep control.

Slag, he had dozed off.

The fresh pain let him concentrate on the roar of Italian horse power growling at him from behind. He needed to act instead of just blindly reacting in exhaustion.

Sideswipe scanned his new direction as he altered his course to avoid a strand of large tumbleweeds that had not yet started their journeys.

There was a box canon on the side of a large mesa up ahead and a meager stream had cut a deep rent in the ground over the eternity it had been trickling along its path down the mesa's side. Foliage and brush grew around the only water source for miles and the hard, sun baked earth dwindled to be taken over by clumps of sage grass.

He would have to turn again to avoid being trapped and the grass clumps jarred him something fierce when he hit them at speed.

At least they kept him awake.

His energon percent flashed across his HUD for a few moments then retreated to the corner of his viewing range. Blinking in and out so he would not forget as it dwindled further with every mile.

The hot winds picked up and whistled through the canyons. Dust and dirt pelted him, choking his intakes as his shocks and firewalls were force to deal with yet another clump of sage grass he couldn't avoid.

He should stop and drink the energon he had in his sub-space storage, he was getting dangerously low.

The sound of his brothers revving engine behind him kept him moving.

Sunstreaker wouldn't stop, so neither would he.

The winds died down as the sun dipped low on the horizon.

He could wait just a little longer.

There was a bend in the little stream they were running parallel with and the ground opened up as the water got farther away.

He had to turn and he didn't know if the plant life would give him another opportunity like this. Bracing for the pain, Sideswipe turned as the canyon wall came in to his optics viewing range. The rust tinged, red rocks loomed far above on each side of him as he started to pull out of his wide 'U' turn.

The throaty roar of a finely tuned engine cut through the trailing dust cloud as his brother cut the corner much sharper then he did and accelerated.

Frag.

Sunstreaker's bumper slammed in to his side, impacting his door with a screech of buckling metal and shattered his passenger side window as the yellow one kept on the gas.

Sideswipe screamed to the unforgiving wastelands, enacting every firewall he had to block the pain then revved his engine, trying to put on speed to pull away. Only to be answered with a series of banging clunks from his fuel pumps flat out refusal. His continued forward motion kept them going at a diagonal heading. Sunny's pushing leaving him barely able to steer and he had no choice but to plow through a saguaro cactus, sideways.

His firewalls couldn't block out all the pain from his leg, pump and now both sides as his brother continued to push him. Imminent stasis warnings flashed on his HUD as the spiking sensations overwhelmed his CPU.

He couldn't go into stasis.

No.

Not yet.

Not now.

When he felt the solidarity of exposed stone under his tires, the red Lamborghini focused his torque and this time his fuel pump co-operated and he managed to peal out.

Dislodging his twin from his side but shredding his right front tire on the jagged stone.

Swerving uncontrollably until he recalibrated his balancing gyros to accommodate the flat, Sideswipe attempted to follow the path they had cut on the way in.

Wincing as he drifted to the right and hit grass clumps that now smacked in to his tilted bumper. Cursing any and all deities across 7 vectors of solar systems when his tire fell apart and came completely off his rim to be lost in the vastness of the Mojave.

Rocks ripped in to his fender, rim and undercarriage and he decreased his speed.

He couldn't keep it up.

He had to slow down; the rocks were ripping his suspension and wheel well to shreds. Not to mention it drained his energon reserves having to exert more power to keep going.

Besides he already had every pain blocking firewall he had up and they weren't enough.

Stasis warnings clouded his HUD as he did his best to drive and still he bounced off rocks, trees, cacti and anything else he couldn't avoid.

A new warning flashed, a rock had torn one of his lines and now he was leaking break fluid at an accelerated rate.

He had to slow down, while he still could.

Swerving all over the rough hewn path, he left off the accelerator, slowing to 50 mph before his HUD lit up like time square on new years eve with a proximity alert.

His brothers' bumper slammed in to his rear end, crumpling his exhaust and forcing him to regain what speed he had lost as he franticly tried to steer.

"Sunny..."

Sideswipes vocalizer wheezed. He knew it was pointless. Sunstreaker was beyond words. Had been for a long time now.

He steered away from a Joshua tree than a strand of cacti. Jerking his wheels all the way to the right, he still glanced off a rock formation hard enough to fritz his HUD. Bracing as he smacked a tree dead on, the red twin shuttered from the pain rushing past his firewalls then slammed on his breaks.

He had to stop.

Sunny was going to off-line him if they continued.

The dust and grim that coated every inch of him made his brake shoes squeal as his anti-lock breaks did their best. Sunstreaker's engine roared and his twin pressed harder in to him trying to speed back up.

Warnings flashed about the rising temperature of his break calipers and the steadily decreasing amount of break fluid.

His sensors alerted him to the proximity of a large gully he was currently en-rout to and the struggling red twin put as much pressure as he could in to stopping. Only to have his break lines bleed out and the calipers retract. Letting his wheels spin freely as his brother pushed him over the lip of the gorge.

He was alive.

It was dark out and he sat propped up against something.

Something with yellow hands that were clamped down on a ruptured line.

His ruptured line.

O for the love of Primus did he hurt. Everywhere. His main CPU failed to start and he didn't have anything to buffer the pain.

But there was the familiar pulse of his brother back in his spark.

Sideswipe curled against it. Embracing the soft persistent push in his chest and the warm frame that cradled his battered body.

"Don't move Sider's, I think you left most of yourself on the cliff face."

The voice was wrong.

No emotion, almost like Soundwave. Not quite though, it wasn't monotone, more like Prowl with his battle computer going full swing.

He ventured a glance up and regretted it immediately.

That damn stream had cut almost 100 ft down in to the rock and he had left chunks of red and smears of softly glowing blue/pink down the side of the canyon. And O' Primus, he must have transformed mid fall because what was left of his injured leg dangled from a rocky outcropping halfway up.

The red warrior looked down to the remains of his leg. The metal twisted off mid thigh, thankfully lower then where the medic's had shunted the lines.

"I'm sorry Sideswipe. I really am."

He curled further against his brother's heated chest, he felt so cold.

Sunstreaker wrapped his arm around his brother's shoulder at the shiver, pulling his red counterpart closer.

"All there was, was rage and hate and I had to do something, anything, I couldn't stop. I-I didn't even know it was you until you stopped moving and I thought you had off-lined for good."

The odd voice stopped and wheezed.

"I thought I killed you."

Sideswipe felt Sunstreaker tighten his hold on him for a few moments.

"I'm sorry. So sorry."

There was no emotion behind the words, just, just nothing. It was like he was saying sorry to spilling a cube of energon.

"Sunny… what happened to you?"

He coughed, violently purging his throat of the energon that had collected there.

"You sound…different."

Sunstreaker shifted next to him and Sideswipe grabbed his brother around the middle. Or tried to. His right hand refused to grab.

"When I thought you were dead, the rage went away, but there was nothing there to take its place. Scans say your dangerously low on energon, do you still have that stash in sub-space?"

He groaned, it hurt to move, but he managed to pull his right hand away from Sunny.

"Yeah, I'll grab it… oh."

His hand was gone, most of his wrist too. Wires sparked from the stump of his forearm and he saw the patch job the other Lamborghini must have done to stop the main line from leaking.

How badly injured was he?

His scanners were off line and he figured he really didn't want to know.

Sunstreaker helped him sit up so he could use his left hand to open up his sub-space pocket and grab the cube of energon. It was of a higher grade then he should rightly have for emergency purposes, but he didn't normally use it for emergency's.

His left arm shook as he raised the cube to his lips and Sunny reached out to help steady it. The next moment he flailed out and purged all the energon he had tried to intake.

Sunstreaker held on to him as he threw up, not even complaining as the slightly corrosive high grade coated his side. Supporting him so he would not fall in to his own mess.

With a rattle and thump from his fuel pump, the heaves ceased and trembling Sideswipe tried to curl back in to the heat provided by his brother's chest.

"D-did you put in an e-emergency call to the ark?"

Sideswipe trembled as he spoke, feeling more drained then ever. He was in a bad way and he knew he needed help.

"I can't."

"Why? Y-Your radio isn't d-damaged."

The red Lamborghini reached up to tap the lump of metal perched on his brother's shoulder only to wince and abandon the attempt. Without onboard systems his own radio would not work, that was if it was even still attached to him and not somewhere on the cliff.

"I do not have the program installed to use it. I get Error 104 when I try."

"How can you not have the program installed? Its part of the basic core programming we all have."

"I don't know Sideswipe. Something is wrong with me and my diagnostics program isn't picking anything up. "

A load clanking echoed in the canyon from Sideswipes fuel pump, and the red mech curled tightly against his brother.

Slowly the clanking eased off and Sideswipe slumped against his brother in silence.

The night sky was clear and stars shown down from the heavens.

"Do you t-think they're looking f-for us?"

Sideswipe knew he should slip into stasis and that he'd end up there soon enough, but after wanting to feel his brothers spark back where it belonged for so long; it was hard to leave now that he had it.

"I don't know Siders, cop-bot was saying something about the doc when I attacked him."

Sideswipe shifted and pressed against the heat of his brother's core. If Prowl had ventured down to talk to Sunny about Ratchet… then either the doc had joined the matrix or would pull through.

"What if I killed him? What if I had killed you?"

They were frontline warriors, killers by make and model. The chances of Ratchet living without a skilled mech to treat him were very slim.

"If you k-killed Ratchet, then you would go to t-trial and be judged b-by Optimus."

"I know that, but I did kill him in cold blood, with no reason."

There was no remorse in his brother's words. No inflection at all and it chilled him to think that Sunstreaker could say that he might have murdered a good and close friend. Well, the doc had a place in their sparks even if it wasn't labeled friend. But to say it so calmly, so unaffected, was disturbing.

"Murder is punishable by de-activation or permanent off-line."

"S-sunny…"

The red warrior held on to his yellow counterpart as his fuel pump launched in to a fit of conniptions.

Each surge weaker then the last and Sideswipe felt as his brother pried open his chest panel and connected the necessary lines for an emergency cross feed to his fuel pump.

Sideswipe sensed the completed loop and waited for the flow of energon to his critical components via his brother.

"Error 104, cross feed program not installed."

He looked up at Sunstreaker and the confusion that marked the gray face in the dim moonlight. They had on countless occasions cross fed each others various fluids in order to ensure each other's survival. It was part of what made them so durable, having a twin that was compatible for transfusions.

Having each other was what made them a lot of things.

He curled against his brother, just holding on as the clunks faded and the angry chirrs ceased. Then cut out as the device ceased functioning.

And he couldn't let him go.

"Sideswipe?"

The blue light from his brother's optics dimmed and went out. Slowly the battered red frame stopped it's trembling and the arms around the yellow mech fell limp.

Sunstreaker held on to his brother, running his hand over the crumbled back feeling the jagged edges of the gashes in the armor panels and the many, many dents from the trip down the canyon wall.

His sensors said Sideswipe was in critical stasis lock. All non vital actions shut down until repairs could be made. A last ditch effort from his core programming in an attempt to save himself.

Although, with out his fuel pump to circulate fuel his brother would permanently off-line within 1 joor.

The recently reinstated bond between them, dimmed and slowly the yellow warrior set his brother down.

He wasn't sad, or upset. He didn't feel anything; it was like the rage that had consumed him also burned away all other feelings.

Leaving him empty. Save for the push of his brother's spark. A push that just weakened in to a soft nudge.

He knew he should feel saddened and fearful, remorseful and borderline terrified, but no, there was nothing.

That alone should have terrified him.

But there was nothing left.

Slowly the yellow warrior stood and looked down at the battered red form at his feet.

There was no tug at his spark, but he knew there should be one. The same way when he stood looking down from the top of the cliff, it was the absence of any emotion that reminded him of how he felt in the first place.

He loved his brother.

Even if he could not feel it.

He still knew he did.

He still knew that no matter what, Sideswipe would love him back.

Because they were brothers and he should not let his brother off-line in a fragging ditch that he, himself pushed him down into.

That was just wrong.

Sideswipe was a mess, he had patched him up the best he could, but he was no medic.

He knew enough to know that moving him would just off-line him quicker and that even though he was probably wanted for murder, the only way to save him would be to get help from the other Autobots.

How?

How?

How?

The town.

Sunstreaker turned and sprinted along the banks of the stream. Running until the sides of the raven the trickle of water had cut, dropped enough for him to jump out. He scanned the area as he transformed and grimaced when he noticed another blank spot on his HUD. There should be 36 alerts set to go off around his peripheral vision range.

He was down to 12.

And he didn't even know what it was he was missing until he tried to use it.

Like his radio.

That would sure be nice to have right about now.

Not that the Autobots would want a murder calling them up, but they would help his brother.

He sped along at a generally northern path. His scanners weren't picking up any readings, but then he didn't know what kind of readings they were looking for. He didn't have the program installed to decipher the coding. His memory banks were at least uncorrupted and he did remember the southern swerve of his bro.

As he crested a small rise he spotted a faint light in the distance.

The town Sider's must have been avoiding, small, sleepy, whatever, he didn't care. It would have a way to contact… the big red guy.

Slag it.

Error 104: program not installed.

Going as fast as his considerable engine would allow it still took him a little over an hour to reach the blinking yellow light.

A joor was 6.5 earth hours, with 1.25 hours for travel he only had 4 hours before he had to leave to make it back to Sideswipe before he permanently off-lined.

By the pit, was this how that logical glitch thought? All facts and no feelings. Primus, no wonder the bot was dull.

The yellow Lamborghini stopped under a telephone pole and hastily tried to hack the line.

Error 104, no program installed to perform selected task.

SLAG.

Ok, ok think.

No radio.

No way to use the lines to call.

Human phones were way too small for him to use and there wasn't a real phone number to call anyway. Teletraan just monitored the lines for their com. frequencies.

He needed them here and he needed them within 3.95 hours.

What the frag was he going to do?

How?

How?

Oh… hay, it works for the decepticons, why not?

It would defiantly get Teletraan 1 to pick up his location, and he already was a murder facing execution.

Transforming, Sunstreaker stalked over to the loan gas station and regretted not having any weapons; he was sure he was going to get scorched but kicked the pumps anyway. There were only two sets of pumps at the rinky dink place and he jumped away from the resulting fire ball that shook the ground.

Yep, legs got burned, almost melted.

At least he didn't have the programs installed to feel pain.

People came out of their homes at the sound of the exploding gas station. Some screaming, some cowering when they saw him and the yellow mech very calmly started to rip apart the rest of the town.

* * *

A/N So I'm not going to say I like this chapter. I tried to convey Sideswipes utter exhaustion and found it…lacking. Same go's with Sunny's insanity. All in all, I have been working on this chapter for far to long and although I an not totally happy with how it came out, I feel it was time to just post it and move on.


	6. dust in the wind

We all fall down

We all fall down.

Chapter 6

Dust in the wind.

* * *

Sunstreaker kicked the corner of the small general store. The old wood splintered from the impact as the entire structure shuttered and the corrugated tin roof twanged in protest. Humans screamed and threw bits of debris at him as he kicked again, harder, buckling the corner and collapsing the small building with an audio clogging screech of breaking wood, twisting metal and shelving units slamming to the floor.

Dust billowed up and out of the falling structure, clogging his vents and turning him a parched red color as the humans around his legs coughed in the haze, then resumed shouting at him.

There were still 247 homo erectus in various stages of undress gathered around him, so he hadn't killed any of them. Yet.

The ones throwing rocks and the lone police officer that had emptied his ineffective weapon at him were just asking to get stepped on though.

But if they perished, who would alert the human higher ups of the rampaging robot? He had left the sheriffs building intact and the town's single copper disappeared into it regularly. Like he was doing now. Retreating from the rear of the pack of humans with his squawking radio held close to his face.

Come on, come on . He was running out of buildings to destroy and there was only 2 hours left until he had to return to Sideswipe.

He had to.

He was not going to leave his bother to offline in some ditch all alone.

He would at least be there for him.

Stepping away from the rubble, the dust coated bot crossed the street and ripped the front porch off a rusty old trailer home. Slamming it into the house and using a still somewhat solid beam as a club to smash the corroded roof in.

A soft scream and the twang of flesh covered fists impacting him made him look down as he ripped a wall apart, exposing the trailer's living space to the desert moon. An old woman, older then he was aware humans could age, beat her fists against his shin guard.

Why?

Why?

Why would she be fighting him?

She was not injured, only old and had the ailments of age. He had done nothing to her. Yet she grabbed an exposed line along the inside of his leg and pulled with a ferocity he could not fathom.

There was no pain when it snapped free, just an arc of electricity and a garbled warning. When she grabbed another cable Sunny stepped away, dragging her for a moment before she lost her grip on the line and fell into the rubble of her home.

He watched the night robed woman struggle to her feet then swoop down to grab a chunk of what used to be her front porch and throw it at him.

Why?

(Internal processor error: can not initiate program.)

Again the old lady threw a bit of her destroyed home; the contact muffled by the woman's sobs and hoarsely whispered "Damn you"s.

Again he registered the tink sound and now the old one was doubled over from coughing so it did not originate from her.

Not her.

Not her.

Error…. Error.

Them!!

It had to be.

Sunstreaker scanned around him, growling when the results notified him of the price of tea in china markets and that the last digit of pi was 3.

No wait… 7.

Slag it just kept going.

Of the 36 alerts only 6 remained and trying the scan again his HUD flickered, then turned a rather violent shade of chartreuse.

The ping sounded again and he wrenched around looking for the source. Infra-red and night vision program drives refused to load as the yellow warrior let out a heated hiss.

Error 104, program not installed.

Where was it, it had to be around here.

They always sent it first.

Sunstreaker stepped away from the partially collapsed house and looked down the dust filled street with its one blinking yellow light and still burning gas station on the other side of it. Then towards the untouched police station with its flickering sign proclaiming what it was.

There was the noise again and brief flicker of light.

The warrior looked down at the swarming humans as they beat blunt object against his shins and knees. Screaming at him as their more timid counterparts stayed back and threw bits of rubble.

It didn't hurt or even register as contact. Just a noise and he ignored it.

The woman was there, throwing stones and shouting.

Why? He did not understand.

He had not harmed her, or them.

So why fight him?

The old woman paused mid throw and looked up. Following some primal code, he sent his gaze upward as well.

The spy sky was taking still images of him as it hovered a good 50 feet overhead, framed by the moonlight and black smoke.

Sunstreaker looked around him, at the smoldering gas station and the dozen or so flattened buildings with the destitute humanoids meandering through the rubble. Then back up at the twirling satellite.

He needed to get moving, when they showed up; it would be to stop him and he didn't have the time to explain himself.

Sunstreaker stepped away from dilapidated trailer home with a grown of dust choked gears as his vents thrummed in the dry desert heat. The crowd of humans surged and screamed at him. Surrounding him as they all threw various items that chimed a chorus of different notes as they hit his armor.

The satellite repositioned to get a better view of him, clicking all the while adding to the noise caused by the humans.

The warrior shifted his grip on the impromptu club he still held and with a great protest of clogged mechanisms, hurled the wood beam.

Sunny turned at the sound of impact in the stunned silence of the gathered crowd and broke into a dead run that knocked half of them down. Clearing the human town with a few powerful strides and cursed as only half of him transformed when he activated cogs mid leap.

Crashing to the ground, his once beautiful metal armor screeched as it scraped against non-moving panels and blue sparks danced out of his joints. Fighting back the internal error messages he forced himself to return to his bipedal form. Staggering as he sorted out what part of him went where and he had to manually grab his right shoulder and force it into the proper position.

Error 104, transformation sequence drive not found.

Slag.

He would have to run.

He only had, had … had?

Where was he going?

SIDESWIPE!

The dirt stained mech leaped over a ditch and hit the ground running. His cheek vents powering down as yet another program corrupted and a steady stream of clicks sounded in his audio.

He would make it.

Turn left at the run over cacti and follow the stream.

Or was it the second star to the right and straight on till morning?

NO

NO

NO

NO

Follow the tracks.

He made them.

He'll be at the end of them.

Sunstreaker gasped as he crested a small rise, all cooling systems off-line and vaporized energon and lubricants hissed out of the cracks in his armor. The metal pinging, betraying its temperature as the sizzle of what was left of his fluids leaked on to his mainframe.

A damaged circuit sparked and a small flame formed on his motor relays.

Albuquerque, he should have made that left at Albuquerque.

He stopped, wavered then fell forward, feet moving to keep his face out of the sand. Stumbling as he struggled to remain upright without assistance from his balancing gyros.

Error 104. File not found.

He would be there for… for… him.

Go

Go

Go

ROLL OUT!

The wind blew sand and grit in to the fuming gaps in his joints and armor. Kicking up and forming a dust devil next to him as the gully came in to view.

Almost.

An all encompassing silence from the essence of his being forced his feet to move faster. His battered hands clutched at his chest, clawing at the source, hoping to hold the fleeting feeling in.

One foot in front of the other. Don't stop. Keep moving. It's because of him.

The internal warnings quieted and his HUD stopped its flickering death throws, steam and smoke drifted up as the yellow warrior collapsed on to the ground with a metallic groan from his smoldering frame.

Sword of omens, give me sight beyond sight.

The edge of the gully was right there, he would be there, he promised.

Sand and grit found its way in to the depths of his chassis as Sunstreaker forced his arms to drag the rest of his malfunctioning self to the lip of the ravine and twisted around to find his brother.

The little stream continued along its hard won path and various plants clung to the ravines steep sides in hopes of getting some of the life sustaining water. Sideswipe sat still and gray on a little trampled oasis of life at a bend in the stream. Moonlight reflecting off of the exposed metal portions of his drastic injuries.

"Nnoo UN putts bbaby in thththt courrrnerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

The last of Sunstreakers programs corrupted as flames claimed his mother board and his optics faded out with a long beep as all processes stopped.

"Took him long enough."

"Rumble; Silence."

The large blue mech stepped away from the group and flipped the yellow warrior over with his foot then knelt down.

Sliding open a heated panel and hacking into the offline bots mainframe without the hindrance of firewalls or any sort of counter intrusion programs in a matter of moments.

"Well boss? Did the virus work? Come on its gona take me forever to get all the sand outa me."

To prove his point the small decepticon shuck his arm and a stream of red sand trickled out of it.

Soundwave cast a glance over to his cassette and the diminutive con gave a final shake to his arm and looked away.

Silence gripped the small entourage as the blue mech did his work and all optics turned to him as Soundwave stood.

"Well?"

"Program shutdown; Complete. Shell virus; detected."

The large silver mech standing next to a cactus growled and kicked the small blue con near his feet in to the plant.

"The objective was Prowl! And we end up with this wretched slagger instead. Frenzy, you reported that you had tagged the Autobot 2nd in command!"

Frenzy wiped bits of cactus juice off his cranial unit and turned to his illustrious leader.

"Well he was part of the group! I knew I got someone. Come on it was fragging freezing out there!"

Megatron glared at the cassette who scrambled to his feet and started to back away as he started to raise his cannon arm.

"Failure has its repercussions Frenzy."

"Ahhhh yes lord Megatron."

The small blue decepticon winced and braced for the shot. The coward.

"Original designation; Maelstrom."

The silver head twisted around and glared at his communications officer.

"Impossible."

"Original designation; Maelstrom, confirmed."

Megatron stalked over to the still mech and turned the dented cranial unit with his foot.

The stench of burning plastics and vaporized energon reaching his sensors as the small motion let the neck lines drain.

"If this is Maelstom then perhaps Frenzy did better then his normal utter failure."

"Hay."

Several red optics turned to the mech in question and he ceased his defense.

"Identity confirmed; Maelstrom."

Megatron turned towards the waiting Octane.

"Bring him, we won't get any useful information out of him but he will supplement our front line well."

There was a smile and a cackle.

"and I'm sure the Autobot's will love to find out where their wayward son went off to."

"Reprogram chance; None. Requirement; brother."

The red optics of the Decepticon leader narrowed as he looked back at the blue officer.

"The red one is little more then scrap… are you certain the procedure will fail with out him?"

"Failure percent; 100 . Requirement; brother."

Megatron stalked over to the edge of the gully and looked down as the wrecked 'bot lying at to bottom of it.

"Chance of failure if both Maelstrom and Impact are reprogrammed?

"Failure percent; 37.8."

Megatron crossed his arms and tapped his chin. Were they worth the trouble?

Scrapper stepped forward, earning a glare from the Decepticon leader.

"Autobot's inbound, what are the orders?"

Quick to respond weren't they. The fraggers. Have to try and save the pathetic organic life forms they slaughtered after Maelstrom left the town.

"Scrapper, you and Hook take the two Autobots back to the Nemesis. Prepare the yellow one for instillation of new directives and attempt to repair the red one. Soundwave, block the Autobots scanners to give then a clean get away. Octane, intercept and try to lead them away. Cassettes, destroy any evidence of what went on here. I want them to be surprised when our new friends join us on the battle field."

Several grunts of compliance reached his audios as his troops jumped to heed his orders.

Good. They know what would have awaited them if they had balked.

Dust devils formed as Octane transformed into his plane mode and took off as the sounds of destruction echoed in the swiftly being demolished gully.

Scrapper looked positively disgusted as he retreated with the red future former Autobot and Hook looked even less pleased to be holding the yellow warrior as Soundwave followed behind jamming any signals they may have been putting off.

If the shell virus worked and the reprogramming was successful then yes, the two warriors would be very useful indeed.

A/N So hi, its been awhile. Sorry bout that. Life…. Well yeah. Anyhow, cookies to those that spot the 1980's quotes and as always, thank you to those who review.


	7. impending

We all fall down,

Chapter 7

Impending doom.

* * *

It was the pain. The Primus horrible stab of pure agony that forced Sideswipe out of stasis lock. The glare from the light above him and the clamor of mechs around him swirled belligerently in his sensors. Then the pain came again.

He screamed. There wasn't anything he could do to stop it. It rushed out of him, keeping pace with flow of agony that flowed in. Leaving him too exhausted to do anything but click like a depleted sparkling when it ebbed.

"Once more and it should integrate."

Pain lanced through him, from his feet to his helmet horns. Screams tore through him again and the red warrior jerked haplessly against the restraints that bound him. Eternity passed in the land of agony followed by a loud click and the sound of his main frame on-lining. The pain slacked and he slumped, spent, on the medical berth as his core ran his basic start-up.

His vents chirred in their attempts to cool him as programs booted one by one.

Giving a short chirrup of completion, Sideswipe's world came back in to focus. Logic loaded and sensors told him to recalibrate his optics for the brightness of the over head light and look around.

"WHAT THE FRAG!"

Scrapper looked disgustedly down at him as the other Constructicons pointedly ignored him. The Decepticon moved ever so slightly and the seasoned red warrior jerked to evade, counter and retaliate. Finding that his arms were secured to the berth rather efficiently. In fact all of him was secured to the berth, very efficiently. Shoving the rising panic down, he glared out at the hated medic.

What had happened? Why was he here?

Where was Sunstreaker?

A violently green arm shot forward and a black fist slammed into his face.

"This one will live, Lord Megatron."

There was muted laughter as he slammed back with the force of the blow. The hard metal berth behind him doing nothing to cushion it as a small trickle of energon leaked out of the corner of his mouth.

"Good, set him aside until Soundwave is finished with Maelstrom."

It was the voice, the sound of claws on metal yet so much deeper toned and the way it said the name made his insides clench.

Megatron knew.

But more importantly.

What was Soundwave doing to Sunny? It felt like ice water had been poured directly to his spark, whatever lingering fog of his pained on-lining floating around his processor dissipated instantly. Leaving the universe laid out in to two categories; the things that were important and things that weren't.

Sunstreaker headed up the "things that were important" side.

Sideswipe craned his neck around to see. Mixmaster blocked most of the view, but his optics could just make out the yellow of his brother on a berth on the other side of the large cluttered bay. Soundwave stood over the still form, monotoneing instructions to Hook who had his hands inside the open chest. Blue light flickered on the vile green paint as a horrendous looking tool was lowered to the exposed spark chamber.

"DON'T FRAGGING TOUCH HIM!!!"

Energon sprayed from his mouth as Sideswipe fought and strained but the straps holding him didn't give. It was an automatic response, he had spent eons fighting along side and protecting his brother. And his brother had spent eons doing the same. They counted on it.

They needed it to live.

They were a set. Not individuals, it boggled processors of many but it was them, together or nothing.

There was no push of Sunstreakers presence in his sublevels, just the void. Looming ever so much larger then before. He didn't stop, he couldn't stop fighting. Even if it didn't do anything.

He could make out the snide little comments of the 'cons present and the spiteful laughter of Bonecrusher at his impotent display.

But he kept on trying.

"Get him out of here."

The unconcerned tone of the Decepticon leader was accompanied by a little wave, like he was shooing a lube fly away.

The berth was unhooked from its anchorage and pushed out of the bay. The red warrior fought the entire way, but all it looked like to a passer-by was a wiggle. The Decepticons didn't mess around with things like bindings. They preferred their prey to be as helpless as possible before they started the beatings.

The door slammed shut and he roared against the injustice of it all as a chime sounded the activation of a heavy duty locking mechanism.

He twisted and turned and got nowhere.

It was like his armor itself was attached to the berth.

He wasn't going to get away, there was no chance. He wasn't prone to giving in, surrender was not an option for him. But now he had no options either. He couldn't leave, they had Sunny.

Sideswipe stilled as his vents kicked in to overdrive to attempt to cool him and quietly he looked around the space he had been stuck into. Crates filled the corners and shelves lined the walls filled with… widgets. They had shoved him in a fragging storage closet.

Like a fragging spare wrench.

It was happening again, only this time he knew what he was losing.

Everything.

His spark slammed against its casing.

As long as he had Sunny.

Then it would be alright.

There was a soft scrape and the warrior turned to see Swindle drop down from a ventilation duct.

So there was a way out, of the closet perhaps, but the Decepticons base was under the pacific ocean. Saltwater was bad for beings made of metal. Especially injured ones, but if it could get them out of here then it was a possibility.

The enterprising Decepticon opened a crate as Sideswipe watched and slid a few things into his sub-space pocket.

"It always pays to know how to get in, or out of the med-bay storage."

The other red bot smiled at him, not a nice smile but the one reserved for when the trader knew he had what you Needed. And that you would give your Processor for it, so that was what he was going to set the price at. And would accept nothing less.

"So tell me… Impact," he smiled again. "what do you think about your new diggs? An improvement no doubt, over the ditch. "

It took a moment for it to load, Sunny, the chase, how tired he was and the crash.

"What is wrong with Sunny?"

He knew that swindle knew, the mech would not be here if he didn't.

"Ooo not just the Yellow Terror, you as well."

It was like a electric shock down his spine.

Him? What did they want with him… oh yes. Can't have one with out the other.

"What do you want with us?"He already knew, calling them by their pit names was a dead give away.

They wanted them as fighters.

They should know they would never do it willingly.

Was that what they were doing?

"I think you Know Impact. Only now you wont have a say in it. Not that you ever really did."

His optics narrowed, Swindle knew more then he let on. The slagger should have been a spy, but chose to make a profit instead. Not that many mechs knew how the pits were run, the few that did were the ones trying to not let he secret out.

"Don't look at me like that Impact, its not like I sold you in to it, at least not this time."

The gears grabbed traction and started to spin, playing forth the blurred deeply unhappy beginnings.

"You're the one that sold us to Cogspin."

It was venom, pure venom.

"Yes, alas my involvement in that particular transaction would eventually lead to my arrest and introduction to the infamous Onslaught in the prison I would live at until Megatron liberated it."

Swindle was still smiling that I-own-you smile and Sideswipe shuttered. The red mech had been a slave trader of sorts. He didn't remember being sold, nether did Sunny. They weren't them, then. But he had seen the records, Cogspin bought two newly assembled mechs, not to be yet another of his creations. No the councilman had a fancy to betting on the pit fights and instead of sponsoring a team like most sane mechs. He had one made. Had them assembled from the same design by two different manufactures and acquired the sparks from Swindle.

It meant that Swindle had removed the spark from a newly minted 'bot to get them. It was the only way. Swindle had killed sparklings to get new sparks that could be wiped and reset in to different chassis. Older mechs sparks faded and perished if removed. But there are problems with taking sparks from there intended hosts, even young ones. And that was what happened. One spark had perished. The report didn't say whether it was Sunny's or his body was the one that held the dead spark, only that the living spark was cut in two and place in the chassis.

Then they were handed over to the pits for training and fighting. Until Prowl and the Lord protectorate came and informed them that they were not possessions and could leave. It seemed so stupid, but they never had the rules and provisions of life as a cybertron citizen loaded. They never knew that what was going on, was wrong.

Now, if Megatron wanted them as fighters, then he knew enough to fight him.

But there was more to it then that. There had to be.

Megatron was the Lord protectorate, he was the one that removed them from the pits. In hindsight it was to get trained fighters on his side, but it hadn't ended up that way.

Now, he should know they would not fight willingly, not for him. Not for anyone they didn't chose.

Frag no.

"Why so quite, Impact? Thinking about the good old days?"

"They can't make us fight, We wont do it."

"I know."

Sideswipe studied the ceiling, at least it wasn't the horrendous orange of the Ark.

"Then how?"

"History."

The red mech looked over at the Decepticon who was still smirking. Primus frag it, Swindle must be enjoying this.

"History, how?"Oddly the smile faltered.

"It will be different for each of you, seeing how Sunny got what was meant for Prowl."

"… I di."

"Don't start in, you inconsiderate whelp. The way Sunstreaker has been acting was because of a shell program intended for the indomitable Prowl. It has effectively removed his operating system and created a block to the memory chip, so he is a blank slate. Since we did not get Prowl mind you the plan has changed, instead of erasing everything and starting over, Soundwave is restarting your laser cores from the day before Megatron removed you from the pits. Its taking them a moment to get Maelstroms memory unblocked enough for this."

It was all said very fast and like the mech speaking had just drank some tainted energon. But that was the least of his concerns.

He wasn't afraid, there was nothing they could possibly do that hadn't already been done. It was just that it was happening again. He was shaking. It was shameful, but damn it.

Everything he had gained in the last few eons, friends, companionship and mostly the love for freedom would be gone.

He wouldn't know that he could say no and not get shredded for it.

He would fight for anybody because that was all he knew. To fight was the only thing, there was no room for anything else.

Only Sunstreaker, no Maelstrom would always be part of him. There was nothing that could be done to wreck that, and if he was restarted and made to believe it was the day before they were to be freed, then the bond would be stronger then ever.

The void would be gone and he wouldn't be so damn alone.

Was what Swindle offering worth it?

The mech was smiling again.

"So how much?

"Oh you know, everything."

That was not surprising. Nothing was free and far as Swindle was concerned. Information was some of the most expensive stuff on his long list of pursuable items, this of course cost more.

"I can't seem to reach my sub-space pocket at the moment."

"Ahh its much more then that."

"I'm sure."

"I'll collect later, when you'll be feeling a lot more…"

The red decepticon smiled.

"…like your old self."

Sideswipe flinched, he would come to collect. Like the sun rising on this planet, it would come about. That was the purpose of this then, to get a little leverage on him. If he was saved then the red con could say he helped out and if Sides stayed in his pit fighter mentality then surly Swindle would use him as he saw fit.

A hand traced a line on his chest plate and Sideswipe growled murder at the straying appendage that would have been forcefully removed from its socket before it could contact him. If he could of moved that was.

"Don't take it that way, your not my type."

The fingers dipped under the heavy chest plate at the neck line and pushed the release mechanism.

"Swindle… what the frag…"

It was uncomfortable to have his spark literally laid bare with the weasel of a con standing over him. And there was not a damn thing he could do about it.

He could feel as the con moved lines and finally pressed something to the backside of his laser core.

"Just a little insurance, now go forth and be the worst Decepticon you can be."

The smaller mech shut Sideswipes access panel and jumped up onto one of the crates, then slithered like the snake he was into the vent duct and closed it after himself.

The red warrior powered down his optics and let his switched his ventilation systems to high.

The straps on the left side were loose.

The bastard had given him a chance, no, not really. He would still charge him for it though.

He would not leave Sunstreaker to face the life of a pit fighter alone. They were already restarting the programs and systems needed. He could feel it, the presence was faint, but there and getting stronger with each passing moment. Maelstrom not Sunstreaker would be the one to online and pity the fool who got in his way. Maelstrom didn't know of a Sideswipe, he knew Impact.

And Impact would be right next to Maelstrom, just like they always had been.

He stilled in the dusty confines of the closet, this was it then. He had made his choice. There would be no second tries.

Stray thoughts crept in to his processors, of all the things he would be forgetting, that Sunstreaker already forgot. Ratchet and Prowl and Jazz and all the others he would forget. The ugly orange and the crushed rooms of the crashed ship he had slinked about in the course of pranks. The look on Prime face when he came in to the control room after he had stepped in to the wrong door way and was covered in sparkles and pink feathers for it.

Was it worth it.

Was not ripping the straps off and climbing through the vent, worth losing all of that.

Yes.

He would have his brother.

The supply closet door opened and the vibrant green arm of hook dragged the berth out.

Freedom, friends, life as he knew it, it was worth sacrificing everything to be by Sunstreaker.

* * *

So ummmmmm, hi.

Yeah its been forever since I updated and this chapter is a bit short by my standard. But here it is and just to clarify what the cons are doing to the twins, think about a system restore in a computer. It resets a computer to a specific date and everything like programs and such that was installed after the date is removed.

Thank you to those who review, you make my world go round.


	8. new beginnings

We all fall down

Chapter 8

New beginnings.

* * *

Megatron glared out at his two newest Decpticons. The twins, now black with blood red trim for Impact and black with a burnt orange for Maelstrom, knelt in front of him. Soundwave and Scrapper insisted that the procedure had been a complete success. Their memory modules had been shut down and restarted to the day after the arena match he had lost to the set. With all that had transpired between then and now partitioned off and made inaccessible within their own cores.

Silver fingers rapped on the arm of the chair he sat in, his throne as it had been dubbed as it over looked the otherwise furniture less war room. The vast table and chairs normally sitting at its center part of the floor until summoned up for use.

Again the fingers drummed out a beat.

They had been unbeatable.

They had beaten him and his second in command at the time, Prowl, in a 2 vs. 2 gladiator match. There were no one as vicious and no one more skilled in the arena then the two kneeling in front of him.

And after so long a wait, he had them.

Only, as they were back then.

Utterly untrained in projectile weapons, not a single targeting program installed and no battle tactics for fights with more then 5 mechs in them.

And they had never taken a life.

They were fighters, not killers.

The two of them could rip apart any mech in hand to hand combat, which was a defiant plus. But it was that final step, crushing the spark out of another mech that worried him.

The silver tyrant clenched his fist around the arm rest.

"Look up at me you miserable slag worms."

The now visor covered faces lifted simultaneously. The red plates impassively regarded him, waiting for an order.

Ahh, now if only the rest of his motley crew were as half as obedient he would have won the war twice by now.

Of course these were custom builds, designed and programmed to do as their master commanded.

"Impact, Maelstrom, you may have noticed that your no longer at the arena's holding pits and that your subjugation program has been modified."

He paused as the two mechs gave curt nods to answer the rhetorical question.

"Good, I would hate to think that my investment was wasted on worthless pit spawn. You belong to me now, Cogspin met with some unforeseen debits and was grateful to get rid of you slag heads."

Cogspin died long, long ago in a prison for the crimes he committed upon these two. Crimes he, acting as the Lord Protectorate had investigated and judged harshly. The aspiring tyrant had wanted them for his soon to be army from the first match he'd watched and what better way gain control over them, then to "liberate" them.

Only Prowl had blotched it up.

The large silver mech noted the slight shift in the two at the mention of their creator and enslaver.

Was it relief or confusion? Or something else?

It did not matter; they belonged to him now and would do his bidding.

"You both will report to Soundwave for targeting and tactical program installation, then to Onslaught for the practical application. You will not be permitted energon or rest until you can handle the advanced scenarios. Understood?"

The voices came together, as one, yet different.

"Yes, Lord Megatron."

They did not move. He had not told them too.

Primus when was the last time he had such disciplined troops?

He knew they had to busting with questions. Counselor Cogspin had not raised them to be stupid. Why purchase them and not use them as they were manufactured to be used, in the fighting rings?

They knew nothing of the war or of cybertron life as it had been for the last couple of millennia. Maybe they had a hint of the social and economic tensions as Cybertron was mined dry of energon and more mech's submitted themselves to the arenas just to get sustenance.

It was highly doubtful they even knew that.

They shifted their stance, mirroring each other perfectly. Still with one knee on the deck and looking up at him, but he saw what it was.

The last they had seen him; he was on his back looking up at them as they claimed victory.

Cogspin was the immovable force that molded them and they would not rise against him as a matter of painfully learned fact. Despite that Cogspin was not made for anything other then sitting at a desk and thinking himself more important then he was.

They were going to test him. See if they could get the upper hand. They had bested him in the ring with a partner, he alone should not be too hard, should it?

They were designed to be slaves and did not have the standard programs that all free mechs received upon activation about the laws and such. There was no hierarchy they knew of, just Cogspin and the foes they left mangled on the arena floor.

And he was not Cogspin.

They needed to know just how much he was not Cogspin.

Megatron growled low in the vocalizer from his position on the throne as the thrum of his arm cannon powering up reached him.

With a single command he could send them to the floor with the subjugation program. It was how the Counselor kept them in line, but where was the fun in that?

They needed to respect what harm he could do to them, not just with the program a sadistic gambler came up with.

The twins still knelt on the deck plates watching him, waiting for the right moment. The silver mech raised his arm as they shifted again and let off two tightly controlled rounds.

The sound echoed in the vast empty room so it seemed like a volley was fired, not two low velocity stunners. The twins did not move to dodge, or plead, or even whimper in pain as the blasts hit true and knocked them to the deck plates

He was on top of them in the next instant, heated gun barrel burning a circle into Impacts chest as he lifted Maelstrom up by the throat cables.

"If either of you ever try to go against me…"

Megatron grinned.

"I'll take great pleasure in ripping the other in to space fragments and making him eat them."

He didn't so much as release as knock them to the floor again.

Then he activated the subjugation program.

The myriad of electronic signals coursing through their bodies scrambled leaving them twitching, then full out seizing on the floor. Only when blue arcs danced outward from their spark chambers and the pungent musk of melting plastics filled the room did he stop.

Never once did they make a vocalized sound. Just the increase in cooling fan tempo and the sporadic clicking as circuits reset.

Screams would draw attention, even in the pits and old Cogspin couldn't have that.

"Now report to Soundwave, do not keep him waiting."

The set rose shakily to their feet and strode to the door. Not bothering to tend the damage caused by the blasts or letting the fact their signals were still scrambled hinder them.

Even after all the eons that had past, the councilors depravity still disgusted him.

In all that had transpired in the war, there were levels even he would not sink to.

Only when the door swished shut behind them did Megatron start his return to the command center, connected to this room via a discreet side door. As his foot met the decking, pain shot through him. His leg gave out a moment later and the mighty leader of the Decepticons crashed to the floor. Laughing darkly, he pulled a shank out from the inboard side of his knee joint.

Oh, Primus did he looked forward to setting them loose on a battlefield.

As soon as the door swished shut behind them a blocky blue mech stepped in to the corridor and motioned for them to follow.

Soundwave.

Impact cocked his head to the side, it was like he almost recognized the mech. Sure he had been looming over them when they had on-lined, but even then it was like he was missing something.

Maelstrom revved lowly in warning and he straightened up and commenced to follow the mech with his brother in tow. It was all so different. Sure the place was dark and dank, but it was under an ocean… a large body of h2o that was salinated and supported immense amounts of biological life.

And was not on cybertron.

Primus they had never even out of the arena complex before and here they where on some wayward planet no longer under the titanium heel of Cogspin.

There was the Megatron guy that had bought them, but so far he was nothing like the old Cog.

Impact looked at everything, trying to take it all in. How the floor became grates and he could look at the deck below him. Everything didn't gleam, but it was clean and impressive. Defiantly not the run down pits of the arenas that had been the holding area for countless mechs before him and Mael came along.

There were no echoes of matches going on from above, no muted roar of the crowd or metal to metal impacts. Just the hum of unseen equipment and the footfalls of the mechs that got out of Soundwave's way.

He shifted uncomfortably in the new armor, it was heaver then his arena gear and it was affecting his balance. Mael shifted slightly behind him, the armor also upsetting his brother's normal grace. If they were to fight then they'd have to get used to moving under all this weight. That was what this Lord Megatron wanted.

And apparently a lot more then just fighting in the pits.

Laughter erupted out from a room they were passing to the left and when he looked in he could see multiple mechs pointing at one who was gyrating wildly in an odd rhythmic fashion. Tables and chairs littered the space haphazardly, most of them pushed back to give the standing mech room. The pungent aroma of quality energon rushed over him and he caught sight of the dozen or so cubes scattered throughout the mess. More energon was spilt on the furniture then he and his brother were allotted for in a solar cycle.

It was down right criminal for them to waist it like that.

And they were laughing about it.

Why? What was he doing that warranted wasting energon like that?

They turned down a corridor and made it about 2 breams before he couldn't hold the question in anymore.

"Soundwave… what was he doing?"

Both he and Mealstrom tensed, questions were not permitted and even though by now they were used to the subjugation program, it still hurt. Moments passed and their guide kept up his pace.

"Action nomenclature; Dancing."

Ok he had heard of that before, but why would that mech do it here and was that why he got away with spilling energon? Was he dancing for energon?

"Why is he dancing and why did the other mechs laugh?"

It just popped out. He didn't mean for it to be said out loud.

His brother revved in warning again. He was pushing things he knew that.

"Reason: intoxication. Reason: very poor dancer."

It was like the energon wasn't important.

It gnawed at him. Energon was life.

His mouth opened to form another question and a heavy foot collided with the back of his own. The black and red decepticon muted his vocalizer and stole a glance back at the smoldering face of his brother. The paint job just made Mael look… sinister.

If that was what Megatron wanted, he achieved it very well.

They turned another corner in the maze of corridors and the blue and white mech halted just long enough to key in a pass code then marched forward again through the door that slid open.

The room was spotless with jarringly powerful white lights that hung over medical berths. Soundwave touched a metal strip on the wall and the room altered itself. Stands rose out of the floor next to where their guide stood and a cabinet pulled out of the wall from between the two closest berths.

"How did you do that?"

Maelstrom voiced from behind him.

The blue mech paused in his inspection of the cabinets contents. Then pulled out several data disks and double checked to insure he had grabbed the correct ones.

"Room; modular. Compliance necessary; Sit."

He sat on the closest one and Maelstrom parked on the one opposite.

It was odd; he hadn't been punished for some sort of disobedience or insubordination or for just being him. As the blocky mech moved around him and his brother attaching various lines and cables, he suddenly tensed. The blue mech had his back to him and along the spinal support was a healed over mark. Not very big and distorted by countless weld seams, the mar of the arena was clearly visible.

"I knew I knew you!"

Soundwave turned slowly to look at him, optics burning in a familiar way and Impact jerked back as his memory banks seemed to sneeze. Flipping through several images at once, giving him an odd sense of duplicity until he tossed up a hastily prepared firewall to halt the barrage. Only succeeding in tripping the attack up momentarily and the images began to race over the inside of his optics even faster.

Primus it was like going through life all over again only on fast forward. Rip-tearing through everything that had happened at lighting fast speeds. Soundwave was doing something to the lines connected to him. It was starting to hurt but it was so fragging hard to see past his life's events as they played out.

The black and red Decepticon reared back and cried out as he watched his brother get slagged all over again, and again and again. The sequence repeating as liquid fire shot up his arm.

Maelstrom leapt from his berth and used his body weight to slam the slagger into the edge of his berth. The images flooding him halted at the impact that cracked the cassette players chest.

The black and orange had Soundwave's arm twisted up behind his back and applied enough force to make the shoulder bearing groan from the misalignment.

"Mindwarp."

Impact pulled out the line that was causing the pain, raising an optic ridge at the pungent green goop that dripped out of it.

"That doesn't look like a battle program to me."

Mael hissed into the captive mechs audio and silently Impact agreed, shaking his head to clear it of the last remains of the images.

But it was Mindwarp, there was no way it could be any other mech. The technique was the same, the outward appearance different but then they didn't look like themselves either.

"What happened to you Warp? Last we saw, you were dragged out of the pits, grey as death."

Mael slowly released the arm as he too recognized their pit companion. Running a hand down the blue back along the spinal ridge and tracing the now faint brand.

Impact turned himself around and dropped his legs over the side to sit facing the mech that called himself Soundwave. Reaching up and pausing, waiting for the curt nod he knew would come before activating the control that retracted the battle mask on the now blue mech.

The scars were just as ugly as before, faded some but dominating the still, stoic face. The jagged lines reaching up and under the red visor the Twins knew covered the empty optical sockets. Slowly Impact traced the worst looking of the scars with his thumb, from the lip of the visor down the cables along the throat until it disappeared into the chest armor.

"We thought you died."

Mael's lips were dangously close to the audio spikes on the side of their former lovers head, something they knew drove him wild. He could see black hands, not his own, caressing the inlayed sensory net that spanned the blue and whites back.

Maelstrom was always blunt about what he wanted. Impact grinned as the black hand lifted for a nanoclick and a small jolt of static passed between the hand and the sensor net.

There was something about advanced sensory relays that his brother found so enticing. To the point that he had to restrain his brother from groping a few of their opponents that had them installed. Maybe because they enabled mechs that could not fight to save their own skid plates an advantage that had cost them a few matches.

Maybe Maelstrom just liked them.

He did too.

Not nearly as much as Mael did though.

Soundwaves internal fans kicked on, blowing heated air on to Impacts chest. The black and red Decepticon leaned in, cupping the scared face. Let Mael have the sensor net, he preferred the front side of a mech.

And this mech did have a nice front side.

His other hand was exploring how nice it was indeed. Tracing the fresh crack and the yellow detailing around Soundwaves chest. He remembered the buttons and the enticing sounds their lover made when playing with them. His free hand diving south as he dove in to capture the still mouth.

"Negative!"

Blue hands pushed him away from his goal and the owner of said hands swiftly sidestepped to remove Mael from his backside.

"Tease."

He was off the berth and circling, Mael in perfect sync with him.

"Negative; action not advised!"

"Why? We thought you liked this sort of thing?"

It was a jib in the skid plates and Soundwave knew it. Primus, Soundwave was the one that showed them other mechs weren't only for fighting with in the first place. They were all owned by Cogspin and although they never did find out what made Cog go berserk and at the time make it look like he had killed the blocky mech. That was vorns ago, and they never got a chance to be with another mech like that again.

He reached forward and caressed the shoulder mounted array. Teasing the red pinstripe around the lip and feeling the sound vibrations with his fingers.

"Stop. Please."

You would never guess that all sounds made from the mech were produced by the shoulder array. Until you were touching it.

"Why should we?"

The mouth moved. Slowly and to Impact's shock, words came out.

"Time has passed; a great deal of it. I am no longer who I was when you knew me."

The voice was static ridden and glitched when pronouncing certain sounds.

"How much time? What is going on here?"

He and Mael asked at the same time.

"Sit, I will explain as the programs l-load."

It was Maelstrom that grabbed their one time lover and slammed him in to the berth, collapsing it and sending him to the floor.

"NO! We trusted Mindwarp, Not Soundwave. Why should we do anything you say? You've already tried to poison Impact once."

The vile green goop still dripped damningly from the line.

"Megatron has given me the codes for your subjugation program."

They both sneered, the pain they could block, it wasn't so hard after living through it so many times. It was the left on floor gasping, shaking unable to do anything that prevented them from a full out rebellion.

The blue mech shook his head as he pulled himself to his feet, the closest thing to an emotion they had ever witnessed from him.

"I was physically destroyed and left to off-line in the scrap heap because my spark had split due to our activities. Megatron found me, repaired me and I serve Megatron not because I have to. But because he killed Cogspin, and is fighting to prevent the things he and countless other councilors got away with due to misuse of their rank and privilege. Now there is only Megatron and those who oppose him."

They paused and looked at each other.

"What happened to the sparkling?"

The words quiet and echoing out from them both.

"It died."

Soundwave turned away from the emotion in their optics and gestured to the berths.

"Sit, several thousand vorn has passed since then and there are many things required of you before you are permitted to refuel."

They shuffled in to place and sat, he on the twisted hunk of the berths remains and Mael on the good one and let the lines be reattached. Flinching as information poured in and programs rebooted after the install. Understanding filtering into their core, of languages, of how to read and of countless courtesies and traditions.

They watched as the disk they now knew was labeled: Basic Core Programs 1, was placed on the shelf and the next disk in the series was placed in the tray.

"Can you remove the Subjugation program from us?"

The mask had slid back into place over the scared face and the monotone of the shoulder array greeted them.

"Request: Approved, Stipulation: Loyalty to Megatron."

* * *

A/N Hope ya'll don't mind the minor molesting of Soundwave, and of course reviews are always appreciated. Oh and yes I changed the summery, this fic is going in different directions then what I had planed out at the beginning.


End file.
